Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Dec 2019
A Prospective Analysis of Motor and Cognitive Skill Retention in Novice Learners of Point of Care Ultrasound.
To identify the time at which point of care ultrasound static image recognition and image acquisition skills decay in novice learners. ⋯ Motor and cognitive skills decay at different times for pleural and cardiac images. Future ultrasound curricula should retrain skills at a maximum of 8 weeks from initial training. They should focus more on didactic sessions related to image identification for pleural images, and more hands-on image acquisition training for cardiac images, which represents a novel finding.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 2019
Observational StudyPreoperative Diaphragm Function Is Associated With Postoperative Pulmonary Complications After Cardiac Surgery.
Postoperative pulmonary complications increase mortality, length, and cost of hospitalization. A better diaphragmatic strength may help face an increased work of breathing postoperatively. We, therefore, sought to determine if a low preoperative diaphragm thickening fraction (TFdi) determined by ultrasonography helped predict the occurrence of postoperative pulmonary complications after cardiac surgery independently of indicators of frailty, sarcopenia, and pulmonary function. ⋯ A low preoperative TFdi,max can help to identify patients at increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications after cardiac surgery.