Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery Using Ultrasound-Guided Nerve Blocks
A Sonosite SII point-of-care ultrasound system recently played a key role in an innovative procedure of thyroid surgery without the use of general anaesthetic.Dr. Rüdiger Eichholz, a consultant anaesthetist working for private practise in Stuttgart, Germany, explained the case.“We were approached with an unusual case; a young woman in need of thyroid surgery, but unwilling to have a general anaesthetic due to a childhood medical trauma,” said Dr. Eicholz. “We looked at the possibility of performing an ultrasound-guided block of the cervical nerves pathway – a technique commonly used for…
Filling the gap with Sonosite Ultrasound Training
FUJIFILM Sonosite continues to lead the way in ultrasound training and education, helping clinicians to develop and maintain their practical skills in a variety of disciplines. Learning a new ultrasound procedure or technique can be challenging – particularly if you feel that you do not have adequate understanding or training – and it remains a barrier to clinicians making the transition to using ultrasound in everyday practice. That’s why FUJIFILM Sonosite established the education centre in Luton, to provide expert training and instruction to support the learning needs of doctors, nurses…
Point-of-care ultrasound helps make regional anaesthesia quicker and safer, and improves patient comfort
Ultrasound guidance has proven invaluable for the regional neurosurgical centre at the Salford Royal Hospital, helping to improve safety, save time and enhance the patient experience. Dr. Jim Corcoran, consultant neuroanaesthetist and clinical director for perioperative care at the hospital, explained.
When I joined the Salford Royal in [2006], my initial interest in ultrasound grew out of a need to alleviate the delays experienced by trauma patients needing a cardiac echo. Training opportunities for regional anaesthesia in the North West were very limited, but we realised that…
Sonosite Edge II at the 2017 Gaes Titan Desert Race
The Gaes Titan Desert by Garmin is a 6-day endurance bike race over mountain terrain; the 2017 edition takes place in Morocco. From April 30-May 5, the Titan Desert saw over 463 top-level mountain bikers cover 380 miles of unyielding desert in gruelling conditions.Dr. Marc Bausili, an anaesthetist at the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona and a member of the Titan Desert medical team, knew what kind of injuries would be the most common, and what kind of equipment would be the most useful.“We knew from our experience of similar events,” says Bausili, “that with so many participants, and the…
Global Health: FUJIFILM Sonosite Donates Ultrasound Systems to Refugee Rescue Organisation
FUJIFILM Sonosite has donated two M-Turbo point-of-care ultrasound systems to the non-governmental sea rescue organisation Proactiva Open Arms, based in Badalona, Spain, to support efforts in rescuing refugees.Proaativa Open Arms specialises in surveillance and rescue missions of refugee-filled boats in the Aegean and Central Mediterranean seas. People fleeing civil war, poverty, and persecution in their own countries have headed for Southern European shores. Boats that break down in the water are abandoned by the operators (usually smugglers) and refugees are left stranded in the…
POCUS Profile: Dr. Matthew J. Reed
Point-of-care ultrasound plays an important role in the emergency sector, enabling hospital clinicians and paramedics responding to an urgent call for medical assistance to assess a patient’s condition. Dr Matthew Reed, an Emergency Medicine consultant at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, explains how ultrasound contributes to the management of cardiac arrest:"My interest in ultrasound began over a decade ago when, as a registrar training in Edinburgh, I visited Australia to work at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. At that time, we were not using ultrasound in Edinburgh;…
Point-of-care ultrasound transforms sports and exercise medicine in Jersey
Sportsmen and women on the Channel Island of Jersey are benefitting from the introduction of point-of-care ultrasound. Dr Adam Garnett, a sports and exercise medicine consultant at the Jersey Sports Medicine Clinic, explained: “My interest in sports and exercise medicine started 20 years ago when, as a GP in Bath, I got involved with the rugby club. I now look after a lot of Jersey’s sports teams, splitting my time between professional rugby players with cases of acute trauma – mainly due to impact injuries – and athletes and runners, where overuse injuries are common.”
“Two years ago…
Global Health: Ultrasound Expands Access and Improves Maternal Care
Every day, 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. 99% live in rural areas. Many of them could be prevented with proper maternal care including ultrasound imaging during their pregnancy and delivering in a medical clinic. Of those deaths, 40% are due to injuries or conditions related to placenta complications - and the only way to detect abnormal placenta challenges is through an ultrasound exam.A few years ago, Sonosite partnered with Qualcomm Wireless Reach, Trice Imaging Inc., and Sony to create the Mobile Ultrasound Patrol project, a trial…
POC Ultrasound Testing Speeds Diagnosis, Safety at the Bedside
Physicians today face a multitude of ever evolving challenges, and one thing we’ve seen is an increase in the demand for educational sessions covering the latest in ultrasound. Dr. Keith Boniface from the George Washington University School of Medicine talked to Healio.com at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting on why ultrasound education and learning is so critical. One of the things that has led to an increased demand for this type of course this year is that we are pressured as clinicians to make diagnoses more rapidly and less invasively. A lot of…
3 Steps to Getting Buy-In For Your Ultrasound Programme
Anyone who has ever tried to change the way medicine is practised knows that inertia makes it difficult to get buy-in from colleagues and administrators. Introducing a relatively familiar technology, like point-of-care ultrasound, into a broader hospital setting might not seem like a difficult task, but all procedural changes face some kind of resistance.In Germany, physicians at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus have been able to expand the application of POCUS through multiple wards using three methods.1. Designate Your POCUS EvangelistAt Evangelisches Krankenhaus, this comes in the form of Dr…
Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care - Beyond the Block
The role of the anesthesiologist is evolving to include perioperative care
With hospitals seeking innovative ways to streamline patient care and improve outcomes, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to provide patient care beyond general anesthesia and nerve blocks. But beyond the block, how does perioperative ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs?
The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine.
In the United States, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to perform a wider role in care of patients—that is, care before, during, and after surgery—a…
Point-of-Care Ultrasound Shows Promise for Osgood-Schlatter Diagnosis
Osgood-Schlatter disease is a developmental disorder that causes musculoskeletal problems and is rare in the normal population. However, the condition is more common in teenagers who play sports, affecting an estimated 3-5% percent of this population; it causes painful inflammation below the knee in adolescents and can lead to permanent soft tissue damage. The condition is often diagnosed by MRI, which is both costly and impractical for screening purposes.Dr. Ralf Doyscher, from the Department of Sports Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, recently participated in a study of…
Watch the Value of Endobronchial Ultrasound Webinar
Are you a pulmonologist, interventional pulmonologist, or thoracic surgeon? Check out our webinar “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease,” from the Endoscopy Division of FUJIFILM.
More people die every year from lung cancer than from colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. In August 2016, we aired “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease.” It’s a timely and informative webinar led by David Feller-Kopman, MD, Director of Bronchoscopy & Interventional Pulmonology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a world-renowned expert in his field.
You’re invited to view this 40-minute webinar that…
User Stories: Madrid's Emergency Services and Portable Ultrasound
Since point-of-care ultrasound systems were originally designed for dealing with emergencies in a battlefield setting, it's not surprising that ultrasound now plays a pivotal role in emergency vehicles around the world. Dr Ramón de Elías Hernandez, head of on-call doctors at SAMUR, Madrid’s municipal emergency service, describes the advantages that point-of-care ultrasound brings to his everyday life.
"I've been an ambulance doctor for the Servicio de Asistencia Municipal de Urgencia y Rescate (SAMUR) in Madrid for 20 years, 10 of those as head of on-call doctors. My day job is to…
Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Programme Saves St. Joseph's $3.5 Million
Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Matthew Ostroff, ARNP
The American College of Emergency Physicians issued a policy statement in 2016 advocating a new safety standard for vascular access through the use of ultrasound guidance. St. Joseph's Healthcare System, in Paterson, N.J., launched a programme that has yielded significant safety and quality of care improvements for all patients requiring vascular access. This article describes how St. Joseph's cut healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes by achieving the "one-stick standard".
Read Article
Point-of-care ultrasound systems prove ideal for the Children’s Acute Transport
London, UK, February 16, 2017 - The Children’s Acute Transport Service (CATS) depends on point-of-care ultrasound systems to get quick and accurate vascular access in critically ill children being transferred to specialist treatment centres. Advanced Nurse Practitioner Cathy Roberts explained: “In the UK, paediatric intensive care is provided at centralised units, and children needing this care must be safely transferred there by people with appropriateknowledge and skills. CATS provides a retrieval service for the North Thames area, transferring around 1,200 critically…
User Stories: 25 Years of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Anaesthesia
Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role point-of-care ultrasound now plays in anaesthesia. "My first encounters with ultrasound were guided by efforts in Heidelberg to improve epidural anaesthesia in obstetrics. We identified that using point-of-care ultrasound to guide the needles could potentially help doctors to implement more effective epidurals more quickly, and might also…
Ultrasound Guided Nerve Blocks, Not Opioids, for Post-Operative Pain Management
It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the throes of a major heroin epidemic, at least partly caused by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers by well-meaning physicians. When it comes to perioperative pain control, there are new ways to tackle patient discomfort without resorting to prescription opioids.Dr. Sonia Szlyk, an anaesthesiologist and director of regional anaesthesia for North American Partners in Anaesthesia's Mid-Atlantic division, explains how local anaesthesia (aided by ultrasound guidance) is helping control post-operative discomfort without limiting patient mobility. Dr.…
Sonosite Institute: Paravertebral Nerve Block Education Module
Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module.
This module will show you how to:
Describe the indications and contraindications of an ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block.
Review the gross and sono-anatomy of the thoracic paravertebral space.
Explore the common techniques for performing an ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block.
View the Ultrasound Guided Paravertebral Nerve Blocks webinar by Dr. Theresa Bowling, Director of Regional Anaesthesia, The Stamford Hospital. Here’s a sneak-…
Six Secrets of Implementing Ultrasound in Paediatric Emergency Medicine
Becker's Hospital Review
Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS
Ultrasound is an important tool for rapid assessment of trauma patients, CVC and regional nerve block placement, facilitating difficult PIV access, and assessing cardiac function during resuscitations. In this article, Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS, discusses six strategies to help implement ultrasound at the bedside in paediatric emergency medicine.
Read Article