Covered or uncovered: A randomized control trial of Tegaderm versus no Tegaderm for ocular ultrasound.

BACKGROUND: Studies on ocular point-of-care ultrasound vary on whether gel should be directly applied to the eye or on top of an adhesive membrane (i.e., Tegaderm™). However, there are currently no data regarding which approach has better image quality and the impact of patient preference. In this study, we sought to address this gap by assessing the difference in image quality and patient preference between Tegaderm™ versus no Tegaderm™ for ocular ultrasound in the emergency department. METHODS: Patients were randomized to have a Tegaderm™ placed on either their right or left eye. The other eye served as a comparator with no Tegaderm™. Ultrasound was performed on the right eye followed by the left eye in all instances. After performing each ultrasound, the sonographer asked the patient to rate their maximal discomfort from the ultrasound of that eye using a Likert scale (0 = no discomfort; 10 = severe discomfort). The sonographer then asked the patient which side (Tegaderm™ vs no Tegaderm™) they preferred. Finally, images were reviewed by an experienced ultrasound fellowship-trained sonographer blinded to allocation and rated from 1 to 5. Continuous data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with mean and standard deviation. A paired samples t-test was performed to assess for differences between groups. Categorical data were presented as frequency and percentage. RESULTS: The mean image score was significantly worse with Tegaderm™ compared with no Tegaderm™ (mean difference: 0.94/5.00; 95% CI 0.79-1.08; p < 0.001). This was consistent in both the transverse and the sagittal plane subgroups. The percentage of acceptable images was also higher in the no Tegaderm™ group compared with the Tegaderm™ group (97.8% versus 82.8%). There was no statistically significant difference in patient discomfort with the Tegaderm™ versus no Tegaderm™ group. When asked to compare the two approaches, 54.4% of patients preferred Tegaderm™, 30.0% preferred no Tegaderm™, and 15.6% had no preference. CONCLUSIONS: Tegaderm™ was associated with reduced image quality and no significant difference in patient discomfort when utilized for ocular ultrasound. This study suggests that ocular ultrasound may be better performed without the use of Tegaderm™. Future research should evaluate the impact of Tegaderm™ vs. no Tegaderm™ among more novice users.

Point-of-Care Ultrasonography for the Diagnosis of Skin and Soft Tissue Abscesses: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Skin and soft tissue infections are a common chief complaint in the emergency department. Research has shown that clinical examination alone can be unreliable in distinguishing between cellulitis and abscesses, a distinction that is important because they each require different treatments. Point-of-care ultrasonography has been increasingly studied as a tool to improve the diagnostic accuracy for these skin and soft tissue infections. The primary objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care ultrasonography for abscesses. Subgroup analyses are performed for adult versus pediatric patients and high suspicion versus clinically unclear cases. Secondary objectives include the percentage of correct versus incorrect changes in management and reduction in treatment failures because of point-of-care ultrasonography. METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature database, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, Google Scholar, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were assessed from inception to July 26, 2019, for all prospective studies assessing the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care ultrasonography for evaluation of skin and soft tissue abscesses. Data were dual extracted into a predefined work sheet and quality analysis was performed with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. Diagnostic accuracy was reported as sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), and negative likelihood ratio (LR-), with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: We identified 14 studies comprising 2,656 total patients. Point-of-care ultrasonography was 94.6% sensitive (95% CI 89.4% to 97.4%) and 85.4% specific (95% CI 78.9% to 90.2%), with an LR+ of 6.5 (95% CI 4.4 to 9.6) and LR- of 0.06 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.13). Among cases with a high pretest suspicion for abscess or cellulitis, point-of-care ultrasonography was 93.5% sensitive (95% CI 90.4% to 95.7%) and 89.1% specific (95% CI 78.3% to 94.9%), with an LR+ of 8.6 (95% CI 4.1 to 18.1) and LR- of 0.07 (95% CI 0.05 to 0.12). Among cases that were clinically unclear, point-of-care ultrasonography was 91.9% sensitive (95% CI 77.5% to 97.4%) and 76.9% specific (95% CI 65.3% to 85.5%), with an LR+ of 4.0 (95% CI 2.5 to 6.3) and LR- of 0.11 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.32). Among adults, point-of-care ultrasonography was 98.7% sensitive (95% CI 95.3% to 99.8%) and 91.0% specific (95% CI 84.4% to 95.4%), with an LR+ of 10.9 (95% CI 6.2 to 19.2) and LR- of 0.01 (95% CI 0.001 to 0.06). Among pediatric patients, point-of-care ultrasonography was 89.9% sensitive (95% CI 81.8% to 94.6%) and 79.9% specific (95% CI 71.5% to 86.3%), with an LR+ of 4.5 (95% CI 3.1 to 6.4) and LR- of 0.13 (95% CI 0.07 to 0.23). Point-of-care ultrasonography led to a correct change in management in 10.3% of cases (95% CI 8.9% to 11.8%) and led to an incorrect change in management in 0.7% of cases (95% CI 0.3% to 1.1%). CONCLUSION: According to the current data, point-of-care ultrasonography has good diagnostic accuracy for differentiating abscesses from cellulitis and led to a correct change in management in 10% of cases. Future studies should determine the ideal training and image acquisition protocols.

Impact of endotracheal tube twisting on the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound for intubation confirmation.

INTRODUCTION: Ultrasound is a readily-available technique used to identify accurate placement of an endotracheal tube (ETT) after an intubation attempt. There is limited research on using manipulation of the ETT to improve the diagnostic accuracy of ETT location confirmation. Our study sought to directly assess whether ETT twisting during the standard grayscale technique influenced the accuracy of intubation confirmation by ultrasound. METHODS: The study was performed using two different fresh cadavers. During each trial, the cadavers were randomized to either tracheal or esophageal intubation. Three blinded, ultrasound fellowship-trained sonographers assessed the location of the ETT post-intubation alternating between using either a technique with no ETT movement or a technique with ETT twisting. In the latter technique, the sonographers manipulated the ETT in using a side-to-side, twisting motion while performing the ultrasound exam. The study measured the accuracy of ETT location identification, time to identification, and sonographer confidence. RESULTS: 540 assessments were performed with equal numbers of tracheal and esophageal intubations. The accuracy of ultrasound using the static technique was 97.8% (95% CI 95.2% to 99.0%) and the accuracy using the ETT twisting technique was 100% (95% CI 98.6% to 100%). The ETT twisting group showed a faster time to identification with a mean time to identification of 4.97 s (95% CI 4.36 to 5.57 s) compared to 6.87 s (95% CI 6.30 to 7.44 s) for the static ETT group. Operator confidence was also higher in the ETT twisting group at 4.84/5.0 (95% CI 4.79 to 4.90) compared to 4.71/5.0 (95% CI 4.63 to 4.78) in the static ETT group. CONCLUSION: There was no statistically significant difference in the accuracy of ETT location identification between the two groups. However, utilizing the ETT twisting technique showed a statistically significant improvement in the time to identification and sonographer confidence.