RT Book, Section
A1 Gelin, Anst
A1 Dunlop, Stephen J.
A2 Ma, O. John
A2 Mateer, James R.
A2 Reardon, Robert F.
A2 Byars, Donald V.
A2 Knapp, Barry J.
A2 Laudenbach, Andrew P.
SR Print(0)
ID 1175881706
T1 Ultrasound in Low-Resource Settings
T2 Ma and Mateer's Emergency Ultrasound, 4e
YR 2021
FD 2021
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781260441819
LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1175881706
RD 2024/04/24
AB In  low-resource  settings,  physicians  may  operate  in  an  environment  with  limited  information,  limited  resources,  and  under  immense  time  pressure.  With  the  scarcity  of  computed  tomography  (CT),  plain  films,  magnetic  resonance  imaging  (MRI),  invasive  monitoring,  and  advanced  laboratory  studies,  the  importance  of  point-of-care  ultrasound  (POCUS)  exponentially  rises.  Lack  of  resources  can  be  encountered  in  rural  areas  of  high-income  countries  (HICs)  as  well  as  in  the  majority  of  the  developing  world,  making  POCUS  a  key  to  the  practice  of  medicine.  Advanced  imaging  methods  such  as  CT  or  MRI  are  typically  unavailable,  or  when  present,  inaccessible  to  the  majority.  These  limitations  include  not  only  cost  and  maintenance  of  equipment,  but  also  the  training  necessary  for  technicians  and  the  need  for  interpretation  of  studies,  which  is  usually  done  by  another  provider.  All  these  factors  result  in  an  extreme  scarcity  of  advanced  imaging.  For  example,  Haiti,  a  country  of  greater  than  10  million  inhabitants,  currently  has  four  CT  scanners,  all  of  which  are  located  near  the  capital.  These  machines  are  often  available  for  only  a  few  hours  of  the  day  and  are  frequently  not  operational  due  to  the  need  for  repair.