Point-of-care Ultrasound for Acute Abdomen: 5W1H (Translated Version)

Overview

Journal J Med Ultrason (2001)

Specialty Radiology

Date 2022 Mar 31

PMID 35355123

Authors

Jiro Hata

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In this paper, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for the initial diagnosis and the management of acute abdomen is discussed. POCUS is supposed to be executed mainly by doctors other than ultrasound specialists anytime and anywhere such as in the emergency room or the intensive care unit. Although it seems rather difficult to cover the wide spectrum of organs as well as diseases causing acute abdominal pain, the author advocates a "six approach" for the diagnosis and triage of acute abdomen, which consists of scanning at eight points in less than 5 min. With this method, the attending doctor can diagnose most of the diseases frequently encountered in patients with acute abdomen, which can help patients avoid unnecessary examinations or admissions. However, users of POCUS should be aware of its limitations, especially when they are using pocket-sized ultrasound equipment. Therefore, users should be careful when ruling out a disease even when they cannot find any pathological findings, and consider the need for further examinations such as US done by specialists with high-end equipment or CT. Since there has been no standard curriculum in Japan for POCUS training that should deal with basic physics and techniques for US, normal abdominal anatomy, typical pathological US findings, and interventional US, the establishment of a learning program for doctors and training of experts as instructors of POCUS are needed.

Citing Articles

Point-of-Care Ultrasonography as an Extension of the Physical Examination for Abdominal Pain in the Emergency Department: The Diagnosis of Small-Bowel Volvulus as a Rare Complication after Changing the Feeding Jejunostomy Tube.

Wong T, Tan R, Lu J, Cheng T, Lin W, Chiu T Diagnostics (Basel). 2022; 12(5).

PMID: 35626308 PMC: 9140157. DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics12051153.

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