• Melissa L Bellomy, Susan Eagle, Mias Pretorius, Ben R Barton, and Yafen Liang.
• From the Department of Anesthesiology and Department of Cardiac Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.
• A A Pract. 2018 Jan 1; 10 (1): 1-4.

AbstractAcute lower extremity ischemia from septic emboli is a surgical emergency. Timely diagnosis and management are critical to improve patient outcome. However, traditional diagnostic modalities such as intraoperative angiogram are time-consuming, require special equipment and personnel, and introduce contrast exposure for critically ill patients. There are limited reports of utilization of point-of-care ultrasound to detect peripheral septic emboli. We present a case where femoral occlusive septic emboli were identified by point-of-care ultrasound after mitral valve replacement. This facilitated early surgical embolectomy and limb salvage. We suggest that perioperative point-of-care ultrasonography should be used as a first-line screening test in patients with acute lower extremity ischemia.

15 keywords...

hide…