Abstract

The focus of this review is to examine the current state of paediatric Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in the injured patient. POCUS has become useful across various medical specialties owing to its ease of use, reproducibility and non-ionizing qualities. Point of care ultrasound has advanced over the past years and has proven to be an extremely useful adjunct in the injured child. Discussion will center around the challenges on when and how to best utilize POCUS. This includes but is not limited to: detection of peritoneal free fluid, pneumothoraces, hemothoraces, pericardial effusions, a wide array of fractures, lung contusions and many other applications. Discussion will also be focused on the evolution of POCUS, as well as a discussion around the determination of training standards.

Keywords: Point of care ultrasound, imaging, pediatric, trauma, low-dose radiation, injured paediatric patient.

Graphical Abstract