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Ultrasound in Intensive Care Unit: What to Ask, What to Expect

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Practical Trends in Anesthesia and Intensive Care 2017

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, the use of diagnostic Point-Of-Care-Ultrasonography (POCUS) has witnessed an incredibly fast development in the treatment of critically ill patients in intensive care unit (ICU). Firstly applied by intensivists as part of respiratory system assessment, ultrasound (US) has nowadays a relevant role in everyday clinical practice to assess and manipulate hemodynamic profile, for the daily follow-up of the critically ill surgical and medical patient, and to aid invasive procedures in and outside the ICU.

The guidelines developed by WINFOCUS (World Interactive Network Focused on Critical Ultrasound) and by Critical Care Society provide clinical evidence of different aspects of diagnostic ultrasound together with grading of recommendation for its use in critical patients. The use of POCUS became an integral part of head-to-toe examination in dyspneic patients, in case of hypotension of unknown origin and while managing single or multiple organ dysfunction/failure in the critically ill. Continuous and focused ultrasound evaluation to monitor the patient’s condition, integrated with clinical data and the use of invasive devices, has become a milestone of the critically ill patient care. How to obtain and being certified for an adequate level of basic and advanced competence is now well codified, making its inclusion in the training program of the intensive care physicians mandatory.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Enrico Storti MD, who reviewed the manuscript and gave us appropriate and useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 2° Servizio Anestesia e Rianimazione, ASST Ospedale Niguarda Ca Granda, Milan, Italy

    Manlio Prosperi, Maxim Neganov & Andrea De Gasperi

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  1. Manlio Prosperi
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  2. Maxim Neganov
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  3. Andrea De Gasperi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea De Gasperi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of “Scienze della Salute”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Davide Chiumello

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Prosperi, M., Neganov, M., De Gasperi, A. (2018). Ultrasound in Intensive Care Unit: What to Ask, What to Expect. In: Chiumello, D. (eds) Practical Trends in Anesthesia and Intensive Care 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61325-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61325-3_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61324-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61325-3

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