POCUS Journal Volume 08, Issue 01, released April 2023
Benjamin T. Galen, MD – With this April issue, we are pleased to announce that POCUS Journal has been recently indexed on PubMed, providing us with the opportunity to reach a wider audience and showcase our high-quality scholarship to the global medical community. We are thrilled to join the ranks of other top-tier journals indexed on PubMed and are committed to continuing to publish articles of the highest quality that advance POCUS in medicine.
Traci Fox, EdD, RT(R), RDMS, RVT; Kaylah Maloney, MD; Arthur Au, MD; Resa E Lewiss, MD – The hospital is full of clinicians working with poor ergonomic form. In the emergency department, for example, this includes and is not limited to clinicians bending over to place IVs and intubating patients. When it comes to ultrasound, some clinicians might think, “I’m only scanning a few patients a day,” and the examinations are typically quick and focused. Enter the term “repetitive” stress injury” (RSI). To date, the literature pertaining to RSI and point of care ultrasound (POCUS) clinicians is very limited. We think it’s time for this to change.
Daniel Restrepo, MD; Thomas F. Heyne, MD, MSt; Christine Schutzer, RT, BS, RDMS; Renee Dversdal, MD – Point of care Ultrasound (POCUS) is a growing diagnostic modality across a variety of specialties and is increasingly being taught in undergraduate medical education. Uptake within internal medicine has been slow but is becoming more commonplace.
Sacha Weill, Daniel Armand Picard, Daniel J. Kim MD, Michael Y. Woo MD – Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) in Canadian undergraduate medical education (UGME) is limited. To address this paucity, the inaugural Seguin Canadian POCUS Education Conference hosted 14 of the 17 Canadian medical schools to develop a list of recommendations for POCUS education in Canadian UGME.
Inbar S.Y. Plaut, MD; Zachary W. Binder, MD – Intraosseous (IO) line placement can be a life-saving procedure in the management of critically ill patients. Confirmation of correct IO line placement can be difficult. Prior studies have examined the use of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) to confirm IO line placement by using power Doppler over bone to detect flow within the intraosseous space. This case illustrates a novel use of POCUS in which agitated saline is visualized within the right heart as a means of confirming correct IO placement.
Eduardo Diaz, DO; Hanan Atia, MD; Brian Kohen, MD; Seth Lotterman, MD – The suprasternal aortic notch cardiac point of care ultrasound (POCUS) window is a useful view for evaluating thoracic aortic pathologies. However, it is not routinely included in the standard cardiac POCUS exam despite its ability to capture emergent pathologies such as aortic dissection and thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA). Ruptured aortic aneurysms can present with sudden, severe chest or back pain, as well as hemodynamic instability, resulting in a high mortality.
Derrick Huang, MD; Jacob Ruzicka, MD; Leoh León, MD; Latha Ganti, MD, MS, MBA, FACEP – Upper extremity acute limb ischemia (ALI) is a limb-threatening and potentially lethal pathology that is most commonly caused by vascular embolization. Outcomes of limb ischemia are time-sensitive due to the correlation between a longer time from symptom onset to intervention with a vastly higher risk of amputation. In this report, point of care ultrasound (POCUS) was utilized to rapidly diagnose a patient with a proximal right brachial artery embolic occlusion, prompting expedited surgical consultation and successful embolectomy.
Takaaki Mori, MD, MRCPCH, MSc; Sung Shin Teng, MBBS, MRCPCH, FAMS – A previously healthy, 4-year-old boy visited our emergency department due to chest pain after a fall from a skate scooter. Physical examination revealed tenderness over the sternal body. Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) of the sternum demonstrated a discontinuation of a hyperechoic structure of the sternal cortex, suggesting a sternal fracture.
David J. McCreary, MBBS MRCPCH PgC US; Alex White, MBBS – A 2-year-old girl presented to the Paediatric Emergency Department following an unwitnessed injury to her left arm while playing at nursery limiting further examination. On assessment she was reluctant to use her left arm and further examination was difficult. In cases of unwitnessed and undifferentiated elbow injuries point of care ultrasound (POCUS) can be used to evaluate for elbow joint effusion, fracture, or radial head subluxation, also known as nursemaid’s elbow.
Helen J. Lu, MD; Edward H. Lee, MD; Stephen Alerhand, MD – Bladder rupture is an uncommon injury that leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Though occurring mostly due to trauma, this life-threatening pathology may also occur spontaneously or after a procedure such as transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT). Computed tomography (CT) cystography is the standard imaging modality for diagnosis. However, this test is unlikely to be ordered in a patient with undifferentiated abdominal pain unless there is specific suspicion for this diagnosis.