POCUS Journal Volume 05 Issue 02, released Nov 2020
Ammar Saati, MD; Arthur Au, MD; Titus Chu, MD; Rebecca L. Davis, MD; Rohin Singla, MD; Jason Smith, MBA, RN; Jennifer L. White, MD; Resa E. Lewiss, MD – A point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) workflow is composed of multiple processes managed by various stakeholders. There are concurrent front and back end steps including: acquiring, archiving and interpreting images; documenting the POCUS study and ultimately coding and billing for the study.
David Haughey, MD; Tai Truong, MD – An 87 year old male with obstructive uropathy was initially diagnosed with acute kidney injury (AKI), a new renal mass and hydronephrosis. When transferred to a facility with a hospital medicine POCUS program, the renal mass was correctly identified as a perinephric abscess, which was percutaneously drained leading to resolution of AKI and the underlying infection. Renal POCUS is readily taught via brief educational interventions and empowers providers to identify common (hydronephrosis) and uncommon (perinephric abscess) renal pathology at the bedside.
Joseph Garagliano, MD; Jai Madhok, MD – The use of point-of-care genitourinary ultrasound allows dynamic visualization of urinary catheter placement within the bladder and serves to minimize the potential for traumatic injury to the prostate and urethra during difficult insertion.
Jordan K. Leitch, MD, FRCPC; Anthony M.-H. Ho, MD, FRCPC, FCCP; Rene Allard, MD, FRCPC; Glenio B. Mizubuti, MD, MSc – Point-of-care ultrasound is invaluable in the setting of obstetric anesthesia, where the differential diagnosis for dyspnea, hypoxemia and/or hemodynamic abnormalities is broad. This report describes a previously apparently healthy parturient with an uncomplicated pregnancy at 35-weeks gestation who underwent an emergency cesarean section under general anesthesia due to severe acute abdominal pain and fetal bradycardia.
Peter C. Nauka; MD; Benjamin T. Galen, MD – Malignant effusions occur frequently in patients with cancer and are important to diagnose and treat. In this report, we describe a novel point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) protocol to rapidly identify pleural effusion, pericardial effusion, and ascites: The Focused Assessment with Sonography in Cancer (FASC). This protocol utilizes six standard sonographic positions to identify the presence of fluid in common anatomic spaces. The FASC examination is intended for widespread use by oncologists and other clinicians who treat patients with cancer.
Steven Fox, MD; Michelle Fleshner, MD MPH; Collin Flanagan, DO; Thomas Robertson, MD; Ayako Wendy Fujita, MD; Divya Bhamidipati, MD; Abdulrahman Sindi, MD; Raghunandan Purushothaman, MD; Thuy Bui, MD – A quality assurance system is vital when using point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to ensure safe and effective ultrasound use. There are many barriers to implementing a quality assurance system including need for costly software, faculty time, and extra work to log images.
Jeffrey Lam, MD; Sherwin Wong, BHSc MD; Nicholas Grubic, BScH; Salwa Nihal, MD(MBBS) MPhil MSc; Julia E. Herr, MSc; Daniel J. Belliveau, MD; Stephen Gauthier, MD; Steven J. Montague, MD; Amer M. Johri MD MSc FRCPC FASE – The ability of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to provide rapid and accurate bedside assessment of both the heart and lungs allows it to be a powerful tool in the management of patients presenting with dyspnea. However, while ultrasound equipment is readily available even in remote healthcare settings in Canada, physicians lack effective training opportunities to develop expertise in this potentially life-saving skill.