Unlocking the Potential of VExUS in Assessing Venous Congestion: The Art of Doing It Right

Congestion, marked by elevated cardiac filling pressures and their repercussions, is a contributing factor to morbidity and mortality in heart failure and critical illness. Relying on traditional methods for bedside evaluation often leads to inadequate decongestion and increased hospital readmissions. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), particularly multi-organ POCUS, including the Venous Excess Ultrasound (VExUS) score, offers a promising approach in this scenario. VExUS enables the quantification of systemic venous congestion, aiding in fluid overload states by assessing inferior vena cava and venous Doppler waveforms.