Neonatal point-of-care lung ultrasound: a UK-wide survey and the way forward

Point-of-care lung ultrasound (LU) is gaining interest in neonatal intensive care and international recommendations now support its use in practice.1 It can provide rapid diagnostic confirmation in emergency situations, for example, tension pneumothorax,2 and enhances the diagnostic accuracy of neonatal respiratory disorders allowing targeted treatment. Increasingly, LU has been shown to accurately predict the need for surfactant and decrease time to its delivery,3 potentially reducing lung injury. For neonates, LU possesses attractive characteristics including the absence of radiation, non-invasive technique, accessibility and ease of training. In the UK, the frequency of LU use in neonatal care is unknown. Additionally, no specific training curriculum exists. We aimed to investigate the use of LU in UK neonatal units through distribution of an anonymised web-based survey conducted over an 8-week period in 2021. One-hundred and twenty-seven responses were returned and analysed. All questions were mandatory, therefore...
Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition - Category: Perinatology & Neonatology Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research