Point of Care Ultrasound- POCUS
Cardiac Ultrasound
The use of ultrasound is now becoming more commonplace in the diagnosis and treatment of our patients. This is proving very valuable as it is quick to use at the bedside, is relatively cheap and quick to interpret allowing us to gain much greater insights much more easily.
Cardiac ultrasound can be very complicated or reasonably simple and this really depends on what it is you are trying to diagnose. Some of the more simple function of the heart can be assessed using bedside ultrasound and with practice, experience and a good mentor this can become a very useful tool in your medical armoury.
Here, in the UK, we can access the Focused Intensive Care Echo (FICE) course to enable us to become accredited with some of the basic skills that an make such a difference. This requires that we register with the Intensive Care Society and undertake a face to face course (one day) and do 50 scans 10 of which must be with a mentor.
I am currently undertaking such learning and thought it might be useful for my own learning and to help others to get the green screen out and try to understand what it is I am actually looking at! As a consequence I am only going to talk about those views and the issues within those views that are within the scope of FICE accreditation.
The videos are my efforts to move forward. I hope they are of value to you.
Parasternal Long Axis View
Parasternal Short Axis View
Apical Four Chamber
Subcostal Four Chamber
Guidelines for the management of tracheal intubation in critically ill adults
Having read the guidelines I made these infographics. They are FREE. Just click on the button below.
