• Efrat Avinadav, Anastasia Almog, Dragan Kravarusic, Emanuelle Seguier, Inbal Samuk, Adrianna Nika, and Enrique Freud.
• Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Surgery, Schneider's Children Medical Center of Israel, Petah Tikva, affiliated with Sacker Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
• Isr Med Assoc J. 2016 Nov 1; 18 (11): 677-679.

BackgroundPoint-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming a common tool for routine use in emergency medicine, anesthesiology and intensive care for diagnostic and interventional purposes. When a portable ultrasound device became available for the department of Pediatric and Adolescent Surgery at the Schneider's Children Medical Center of Israel, we added POCUS assessments to the physician's daily rounds. POCUS is performed by pediatric surgeons trained in basic ultrasonography skills. Starting September 2015 all POCUS examinations were documented.ObjectivesTo describe the current use, diagnostic and therapeutic impacts of POCUS in a department of pediatric and adolescent surgery.MethodsWe conducted an observational study of all the documented POCUS procedures performed during a half-year period. Data regarding patient condition and the POCUS procedures were collected, as well as data on the use of other diagnostic modalities, mainly formal ultrasound exams (by radiologists) and computed tomography scans and their correlation with the POCUS assessment.ResultsFifty-one POCUS exams were performed during the study period, most of which served to define the presence and resolution of a collection - intraabdominal (34%) and subcutaneous (31%). Despite a high rate for formal diagnostic studies (65%), probably due to a relative lack of confidence of surgeons performing the POCUS exams during this initial period, most results (92%) were compatible.ConclusionsThe ability and availability to perform multiple POCUS exams by the attending physician proved to be a valuable aide to the classical physical and laboratory examinations of surgical patients, and we predict its increasing use in quotidian practice.

18 keywords...

hide…