India is severely impacted by the sudden outbreak of highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic which is overwhelming our healthcare system & the number of patients being diagnosed with it is staggering. Amidst these unprecedented times; Point-of-care Ultrasound (POCUS) technology has emerged as a key screening tool for physicians to access the actual clinical conditions in the medically fragile patients.
Nowadays, compact ultrasound machines are increasingly being used to diagnose, monitor and manage patients in ICU, emergency wards and other inpatient services. For patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, it is an excellent adjunct tool for performing comprehensive head-to-toe clinical study & is an ideal device for bedside examination of patients in isolation wards. COVID-19 primarily attacks the lung in the initial stages of the disease and it can also have significant cardiac manifestations in the later stages of the disease.
So, lung ultrasound and focused echocardiography has the potential to aid the diagnosis and management of patients with COVID-19 infection. Moreover, the patients infected with COVID-19 require airway management, or venous access under ultrasound guidance (to administer essential fluids & medications), or some patients in shock or trauma needs a proper shock assessment where ultrasound plays a vital role in clinical evaluation process.
Portable diagnostic ultrasound machine is like a Swiss-army knife which has multiple advantages as it is non-invasive, possess no ionising radiations, can be quickly & repeatedly performed at the bedside, cost-effective and is easily sanitised as compared to other imaging modalities in indoor settings.
Hospitals need to employ proper set of cleaning protocols for machine disinfection prior to use in COVID-19 isolation wards. Because the utility of each application varies by setting, hospitals should consider how they can best use ultrasound within their specific environments.
As per the directive from Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW) and guidelines of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the portable ultrasound plays a significant role in clinical evaluation of COVID-19 patients and should be considered as an invaluable tool for isolation wards.
Major player in this segment is Fujifilm Sonosite company which has partnered with different medical societies across India and assisting healthcare professionals in their battle against this pandemic by providing them the right technology, disinfection guidelines and ultrasound educational resources.
