ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has caused great devastation in the past year. Multi-organ point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) including lung ultrasound (LUS) and focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) as a clinical adjunct has played a significant role in triaging, diagnosis and medical management of COVID-19 patients. The expert panel from 27 countries and 6 continents with considerable experience of direct application of PoCUS on COVID-19 patients presents evidence-based consensus using GRADE methodology for the quality of evidence and an expedited, modified-Delphi process for the strength of expert consensus. The use of ultrasound is suggested in many clinical situations related to respiratory, cardiovascular and thromboembolic aspects of COVID-19, comparing well with other imaging modalities. The limitations due to insufficient data are highlighted as opportunities for future research.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/diagnostic imaging , Consensus , Echocardiography/standards , Expert Testimony/standards , Internationality , Point-of-Care Systems/standards , COVID-19/therapy , Echocardiography/methods , Expert Testimony/methods , Humans , Lung/diagnostic imaging , Thromboembolism/diagnostic imaging , Thromboembolism/therapy , Triage/methods , Triage/standards , Ultrasonography/standardsABSTRACT
Abstract: The appearance of SARS-CoV-2 from December 2019 and its rapid expansion in the world reaching Pandemic status, has become a great challenge for health teams. Although the evidence of infection in children is still scarce compared to that of adults, it has become evident that at the pediatric po pulation level, most of the time the infection is asymptomatic or mild, but not all the patients have this evolution, which has motivated the discussion in the Pediatric Critical Care teams regarding how to face these patients with a more serious disease. This consensus is the result of the work of the Pediatric Intensive Care Branch of the Chilean Society of Pediatrics, collecting the evidence available at the time of the review plus the opinion of national experts in Pediatric Intensive Care. The purpose of these recommendations is to offer teams that care for critically ill pediatric patients a guide for the diagnosis and treatment of patients who evolve with severe COVID 19, which can be applied in all Pediatric UPCs in our country, with special emphasis in those measures that have shown greater effectiveness at the level of diagnostic studies, treatment and care of health personnel.