Ultrasound streamlines management of cardiac arrest

Point-of-care systems are used in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh’s emergency ultrasound training programme.

Point-of-care ultrasound plays an important role in the management of cardiac arrest, as emergency medicine consultant at Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Dr Matthew Reed explained:  “We set up an emergency ultrasound training programme almost 10 years ago, purchasing a Fujifilm SonoSite point-of-care ultrasound system to complement those used in radiology and critical care in our hospital.

“Its robustness is ideal for the emergency department, and radiologists and critical care physicians needing to scan patients in the ED are familiar with the system, which is another advantage.  We now have around 60 clinicians fully trained in level 1 ultrasound, and the number of scans performed in a typical month has risen from 10 to around 80 or 100.  There is also considerable interest in using pre-hospital ultrasound assessment to complement care in the ED, which will help to streamline the management of cardiac arrest patients even further.”

See the full report on page 4 of the July 2017 issue of RAD Magazine.