POCUS History
An emergency physician who I know that works somewhere on the planet in an underserviced area, as most places seem to be, was cleaning up his office this summer. He came across this relic of POCUS history that dates back to the late 1990s. It was a dictation that he had saved as evidence of […]
Stop missing biliary colic
Editor’s note: We’ve talked about the gallbladder before. And we will be talking about it again because the message needs to get out there. I will go out on a limb and state that it is still common for patients to present with epigastric pain that was previously diagnosed by the primary care physician or one […]
Misuse and over-diagnosis in POCUS
As Steve Socransky recently observed, talking about errors in POCUS is a sign of the growing maturity in the field. In its infancy, we wanted to promote the success stories, the wins, the need to do it right with rigorous training and standards. There were numerous logistical and political obstacles to overcome so this positive […]
2016 updated version of Essentials of Point-of-Care Ultrasound e-book on iBooks NOW LIVE!
The 2016 updated version of the Essentials of Point-of-Care Ultrasound e-book on iBooks has now gone live. It includes updates to all chapters. The most significant updates are to the Renal, IVC, and Thoracic chapters. The Renal chapter provides a more incisive way to determine the grade of hydronephrosis. The IVC chapter contains the latest […]
EDE 2 adds Paul O’s edus2 simulator
The focus of EDE 2 (like EDE 1) has always been on image generation and interpretation. We have always mentioned the indications for doing the scan and present at least one clinical scenario for each type of scan, but the cognitive aspect of helping participants remember to do the scan has been relatively neglected. Although […]
EDE Bootcamp Success
Over the past weekend we held a bootcamp that provided participants with the EDE course followed by supervised scans and exams to obtain CEUS IP certification in core skills. I have been asked numerous times what our bootcamps are all about for POCUS training. Over the past few years we have perfected a system that […]
Appendicitis: It isn’t all about the size
During a recent EDE 3 course, I was asked about the cutoff size for appendicitis in children. I informed the learner that 6mm was the number I was taught to use for all ages. And this is certainly one of the most accurate measurements to use. But this really doesn’t make sense in very young patients […]
Scan a hernia
Dr.Lloyd Gordon discusses two cases of umbilical lumps that were easily sorted out with POCUS: This patient had a history of a umbilical hernia which had become larger and painful for a few hours. The patient’s habitus made a manual exam difficult. POCUS showed that there was some small bowel at the tender area […]
Ultrasound horror stories
I am looking for tales of patient care gone wrong with POCUS. Please send me your cases, (or cases you “heard happened to someone else”) where the use of ultrasound at the bedside led to less than ideal outcomes. POCUS is just like any other tool in medicine: it has its limitations, it can generate […]
Two bad things at once
A female patient in her 60s arrives at the emergency department via EMS with acute CP and SOB. The history is consistent with cardiac ischemia and the EMS ECG shows clear inferior ST elevation with reciprocal changes. You call the cath lab and they review the ECG and agree to take the patient immediately. Vitals […]
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