Pediatric ultrasound

A list of resources to get you started on pediatric POCUS when transitioning from adult practice

A list of resources to start your ultrasound journey in pediatric care

This post is a collection of resources collected primarily for practitioners in adult anaesthesia, critical care and emergency medicine who are looking to extend their ultrasound skillset into neonatal and paediatric practice. While that is the context, most of these will be equally relevant to anyone training primarily in paeds.

Learning ultrasound

Most diagnostic tests and POCUS guided procedures translate almost 1:1 from adult practice, although there are additional ones not relevant or practical in adults, especially in neonates and infants.

It is usually easier to achieve good imaging on neonates and children than adults. Shorter distances equals shallower depth and thus higher frequency probes, allowing both better spatial and temporal resolution. Resources to get you started below both for procedures and diagnostics / targeted investigations.

Build a strong foundation in US theory and basic image acquisition techniques

It’s important to understand the fundamental physics, what probes to use, how to optimise images and some of the image artifacts and pitfalls. This can be learned well from a solid online on on-site course, for instance through one of these paid options that will also teach you various versions of views to find and their use, depending on your practice.

The ibooks listed further below are also a good starting point for foundational material and broad systematic introduction.

While the theory of ultrasound physics is universal, be aware that a lot of the ‘knobology’ of optimising images is machine specific. Try to find a mentor locally to assist in developing your acquisition technique and steer clear of some of the pitfalls. Most ultrasound machine developers have good elearning material.

Free textbooks in iBook format
  • Introduction to bedside ultrasound, by Matt and Mike from the Ultrasound Podcast. Still a great introduction to adult POCUS
  • Practical guide to critical ultrasound, amazing broad scope effort by Resa Lewiss et al.
Resources on regional anesthesia
Online FOAM outlets focused on POCUS
Apps on paediatric echocardiography and congenital heart defects
  • Echo UW – standard views in pediatric echo including loops, from University of Wisconsin.
  • Tn Echo targeted neonatal echo. Lists all normal views and how to assess and grade PDA and PPHN
  • NeoCardioLab, seems like a wrapper for the website itself, mentioned above, which is probably the better place to go when possible as the app is not super mobile friendly
  • Heartpedia, out of Cincinatti Children’s. Offers information on and visualisation of a host of congenital heart malformations including their repair. Also has a massive youtube channel, mostly for laymen, but similar illustrations of CHD for a bigger screen
Key articles

Know a better one?

The field of POCUS is perpetually in motion, both with regards to the science and clinical practice, but also online educational material. This is merely meant as a starting point. Let us know if stuff has gone stale or you have even better or additional suggestions below.

Mads Astvad

Scandinavian paediatric anaesthetist / intensivist.
PHARM, ED, OR, ICU.
Digital MedEd
Co-founder scanFOAM.org
Co-organiser CphCC & TBS-Zermatt (aka The Big Sick)
Medical lead REPEL (resilience in pediatric emergency life support)
Web dev SSAI.info

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