Why the study?
While cardiac and pulmonary point-of-care ultrasound offers significant clinical utility in pediatric anesthesia and critical care medicine, potentially dangerous pitfalls exist when performed, interpreted, and applied by novice sonographers.
Cardiac and lung POCUS are valuable adjuncts in pediatric critical care and anesthesia, but require proper training and credentialing to avoid dangerous pitfalls by novice users.
Novice POCUS users risk misinterpretation in pediatric cases; leaves open need for validated training standards.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has found many relevant applications in pediatric anesthesia and critical care medicine. Specifically, the cardiac and pulmonary POCUS examinations provide a wealth of information from physical examination assistance to diagnostic evaluation and assessment of treatment response. However, as with any adjunct, potentially dangerous pitfalls exist when POCUS is performed, interpreted, and applied by the novice sonographer. Using case illustrations, we highlight the clinical application of POCUS in addition to potential dangers. Additionally, suggestions for learning POCUS, assessing competency and credentialing are reviewed.
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Adler et al. (2019) studied this question.
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