General ultrasound in the critically ill describes a new clinical tool: ultrasound for the intensive care and emergency physician. Written by an intensivist familiar with ultrasound, it specifically details findings of immediate clinical relevance throughout its approx. 220 pages. Through a whole-body approach, this book considers new emergency applications regarding the abdomen, venous system, head, heart, and the most original topic, the lung. Flow charts are proposed to resolve daily intensive care and emergency occurrences: acute dyspnea, shock, unexplained fever, etc. The strong points and pitfalls of ultrasound are reviewed in detail. This book shows just how critical ultrasound has proven to be in satisfying a major concern in the intensive care and emergency medicine fields: speed and accuracy. With this ever-present requirement for rapid diagnosis in mind, General ultrasound in the critically ill provides a key to practicing a visual medicine, a great benefit to the critically ill patient, especially since ultrasound is noninvasive and can be done at the bedside. This volume is not only an exhaustive atlas dealing with the most variable aspects of the critically ill patient, but it is above all a guide, a permanent aid in the therapeutic decision.

An atlas and a guide

Generalities.- Basic Notions.- The Ultrasound Equipment.- Specific Notions of Ultrasound in the Critically Ill.- General Ultrasound: Normal Patterns.- Organ by Organ Analysis.- Peritoneum.- Gastrointestinal Tract.- Liver.- Gallbladder.- Urinary Tract.- The Retroperitoneal Space.- Spleen, Adrenals, and Lymph Nodes.- Upper Extremity Central Veins.- Inferior Vena Cava.- Lower Extremity Veins.- Pleural Effusion and Introduction to the Lung Ultrasound Technique.- Pneumothorax and Introduction to Ultrasound Signs in the Lung.- Lung.- Lung Ultrasound Applications.- Mediastinum.- General Ultrasound of the Heart.- Head and Neck.- Soft Tissues.- Clinical Applications of Ultrasound.- Ultrasound in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.- Ultrasound in Trauma.- Emergency Ultrasound Outside the Intensive Care Unit.- Interventional Ultrasound.- Emergency Ultrasound and Antibiotic Therapy.- Analytic Study of Frequent and/or Severe Situations.- Learning and Logistics of Emergency Ultrasound.- Ultrasound, aTool for the Clinical Examination.- Concluding Remarks.