Acute and Critical Care

Original Article

Pulmonary
The Use of Lung Ultrasound in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit: Hyung Koo Kang, Hyo Jin So, Deok Hee Kim, Hyeon-Kyoung Koo, Hye Kyeong Park, Sung-Soon Lee, Hoon Jung; Korean J Crit Care Med. 2017;32(4):323-332. Published online November 30, 2017; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2017.00318

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Background
Pulmonary complications including pneumonia and pulmonary edema frequently develop in critically ill surgical patients. Lung ultrasound (LUS) is increasingly used as a powerful diagnostic tool for pulmonary complications. The purpose of this study was to report how LUS is used in a surgical intensive care unit (ICU).
Methods
This study retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 67 patients who underwent LUS in surgical ICU between May 2016 and December 2016.
Results
The indication for LUS included hypoxemia (n = 44, 65.7%), abnormal chest radiographs without hypoxemia (n = 17, 25.4%), fever without both hypoxemia and abnormal chest radiographs (n = 4, 6.0%), and difficult weaning (n = 2, 3.0%). Among 67 patients, 55 patients were diagnosed with pulmonary edema (n = 27, 41.8%), pneumonia (n = 20, 29.9%), diffuse interstitial pattern with anterior consolidation (n = 6, 10.9%), pneumothorax with effusion (n = 1, 1.5%), and diaphragm dysfunction (n = 1, 1.5%), respectively, via LUS. LUS results did not indicate lung complications for 12 patients. Based on the location of space opacification on the chest radiographs, among 45 patients with bilateral abnormality and normal findings, three (6.7%) and two (4.4%) patients were finally diagnosed with pneumonia and atelectasis, respectively. Furthermore, among 34 patients with unilateral abnormality and normal findings, two patients (5.9%) were finally diagnosed with pulmonary edema. There were 27 patients who were initially diagnosed with pulmonary edema via LUS. This diagnosis was later confirmed by other tests. There were 20 patients who were initially diagnosed with pneumonia via LUS. Among them, 16 and 4 patients were finally diagnosed with pneumonia and atelectasis, respectively.
Conclusions
LUS is useful to detect pulmonary complications including pulmonary edema and pneumonia in surgically ill patients.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Lung Ultrasound in the Critically Ill
Jin Sun Cho
The Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine.2017; 32(4): 356. CrossRef

Case Report

Massive Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage Caused by the Aspiration of Gastric Contents during Induction of Anesthesia in Patients with Adhesive Ileus: A Case Report: Ji Seon Jeong, Jong Hun Jun, Hyo Jin Song, Hee Koo Yoo; Korean J Crit Care Med. 2012;27(2):115-119.; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2012.27.2.115

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Abstract PDF: Aspiration pneumonitis is best defined as an acute lung injury, following the aspiration of regurgitated gastric contents. Major cause of pulmonary aspiration, during anesthesia, is gastric contents. Pulmonary aspiration can present symptoms of wheezing, coughing, dyspnea, cyanosis, pulmonary edema, hypotension, and hypoxemia, which may progress rapidly to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, there was no report of massive alveolar hemorrhage associated with aspiration pneumonitis. A 63-year-old man, who had undergone a total gastrectomy and received adjuvant chemotherapy, four months ago, was scheduled for adhesiolysis of the small bowel. The patient occurred aspiration of gastric contents, during induction of anesthesia, and subsequently, hypoxia developed during surgery. The patient moved to an intensive care unit (ICU), without extubation. Mechanical ventilation with PEEP was performed in an ICU. However, the patient died by ARDS and massive alveolar hemorrhage.

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