Point-of-Care Echocardiography by Pediatric Emergency Physicians

Point-of-care echocardiography is a goal-directed bedside ultrasound that can aid clinical decision making, enhance diagnostic confidence, and facilitate judicious consultation in the hemodynamically unstable or critically ill or injured child in the emergency department. Similar to other applications of ultrasound in the emergency department, it is designed to answer a binary (yes/no) question: Is there a pericardial effusion with tamponade? Is the left ventricular function normal or depressed or hyperdynamic? Is the cardiac preload decreased or normal or increased? The scope of this review is to introduce the reader to the technique, normal anatomy, and standard transthoracic echocardiographic views and understand how point-of-care echocardiography can be integrated into bedside assessment of the seriously ill or injured child.