Point-of-care Ultrasound Detection of Intraoperative Venous Air Embolism

We present ultrasound images of a basic perioperative transthoracic echocardiogram examination performed during the resuscitation of a 16- month-old girl who presented for an open hip reduction and experienced an acute decrease in her end-tidal carbon dioxide, heart rate, and blood pressure shortly after standard induction, intubation, and caudal block. The images are a subcostal, four-chamber view of the heart obtained shortly after the initiation of resuscitation. There are copious air bubbles giving a snowstorm appearance to the right ventricle (RV) (panel A). The mitral valve, left atrium (LA), and right atrium (RA) are obscured by acoustic shadowing.
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research