Purpose of Review
Ultraportable handheld ultrasound (HHU) devices are being rapidly adopted by emergency medicine (EM) physicians. Though knowledge of the breadth of their utility and functionality is still limited compared to cart-based systems, these machines are becoming more common due to ease-of-use, extreme affordability, and improving technology.
Recent Findings
Images obtained with HHU are comparable to those obtained with traditional machines but create unique issues regarding billing and data management. HHU devices are increasingly used successfully to augment the education of practitioners-in-training, by emergency physicians in austere environments, and in the burgeoning fields of “tele-ultrasound” and augmented reality scanning.
Summary
This review seeks to describe the current state of use of HHU devices in the emergency department (ED) including device overview, institutional concerns, unique areas of use, recent literature since their adoption into clinical EM, and their future potential.
Purpose of Review
This review seeks to discuss the use of RA in the ED including benefits of administration, types of RA by anatomic location, complications and management, teaching methods currently in practice, and future applications of RA in the ED.
Recent Findings
The early use of RA in pain management may reduce the transition of acute to chronic pain. Multiple plane blocks have emerged as feasible and efficacious for ED pain complaints and are now being safely utilized.
Summary
Adverse effects of opioids and their potential for abuse have necessitated the exploration of substitute therapies. Regional anesthesia (RA) is a safe and effective alternative to opioid treatment for pain in the emergency department (ED). RA can manage pain for a wide variety of injuries while avoiding the risks of opioid use and decreasing length of stay when compared to other forms of analgesia and anesthesia, without compromising patient satisfaction.
Introduction: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening condition with significant morbidity and mortality, and can require surgical repair.
Case Report: A 36-year-old man presented to the emergency department for worsening dyspnea and chest pain. Point-of-care echocardiography demonstrated a mobile oscillating mass on the aortic valve with poor approximation of the valve leaflets, suggesting aortic valve insufficiency secondary to IE as the cause of acute heart failure. The patient underwent emergent aortic valve replacement within 24 hours.
Discussion: While point-of-care echocardiography has been well documented in identifying tricuspid vegetations, aortic valve involvement and subsequent heart failure is less well described. Earlier recognition of aortic valve vegetations and insufficiency can expedite surgical intervention, with decreased complication rates linked to earlier antimicrobial therapy.
Conclusion: This case report highlights the ability of point-of-care ultrasound to identify aortic vegetations, allowing for the earlier diagnosis and therapy.
The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes. There are 2 errors on the author affiliations list and need to be fixed so that the credit will be given to the correct institutions. The corrected affiliations are given under authors affiliation list. The original article has been corrected.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.