Lung ultrasound in critical care

Point of care ultrasound for critically ill patients in intensive care unit has enabled clinicians to expedite the process of diagnosis and treatment without exposing the patient to any of the harmful radiations. Lung ultrasound (LUS) ensures an accurate assessment of the disease pathology, is easy to learn, widely accessible and can be performed at the bedside of hemodynamically unstable patients or those with high ventilator support, where shifting to a computerized tomography (CT) room involves substantial risk. Bedside lung ultrasound in emergency protocol has been formulated to guide intensivists and emergency physicians to enable a systematic approach in the diagnosis of various lung pathologies using ultrasound within a time of 3 min. LUS also provides a guide to fluid challenge requirements in acutely ill patients. It is a modality of immense help to physicians in the treatment and management of acutely ill patients who need emergent care. For the preparation of this review article, Medline search was done to assess previous review articles on LUS and the current clinical trials comparing the efficacy of LUS to other modalities of pulmonary imaging like chest radiograph and CT thorax. Review articles comparing the sensitivity and specificity of bedside LUS to CT thorax were also searched to establish the utility of LUS in diagnosing various lung pathologies.