Director of PICU Dr Akash Deep (right) and SonoSite UK education manager and clinical lead Vanessa Wickens.
Ultrasound technology is helping the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at King’s College Hospital, London, to rapidly obtain vascular access in critically ill patients. Director of PICU Dr Akash Deep said: “PICU treats patients ranging in age from just a few days old to 18 years. In many of these patients, for example a child in septic shock, vascular access must be obtained without delay and we rely on ultrasound for this procedure. Until recently, this was performed using a hand-held system that was quite old, and we could not always obtain the image quality we needed.
“Our theatres are equipped with point-of-care ultrasound systems from SonoSite. We used one of these for a PICU patient where vascular access was proving particularly difficult, and were amazed by the difference it made; within minutes an arterial line was in place. I am convinced this contributed to better management of the patient’s septic shock by helping us to rationalise inotropes and vasopressors, and we could not have done this with our other ultrasound instrument.”
See the full report on page 11 of the October 2017 issue of RAD Magazine.