Managing Palliative Care Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound

An Irish medical consultant has chosen a point-of-care ultrasound system to provide care for approximately 100 terminally ill patients, both at the hospice and in patients' own homes.

The system is the first M-Turbo used in Ireland. Dr. Donal Martin, a consultant in palliative care at Donegal Hospice, explained, "Serial ultrasound using the M-Turbo system gives me an unprecedented ability to monitor disease progression, and offers patients and their families more informed choice in their own management. The instrument allows me to examine patients in their own homes with minimal disturbance, which is obviously very important when transporting patients to hospital is not an option.”

According to Dr. Donal, this point-of-care technology is proving to be very beneficial in those patients suffering from cardiac, renal, and hepatic failure. He has used it for all kinds of observations and procedures, including safer directed paracentesis and thoracocentesis, early detection of dipterous thrombosis (DVT), measurement of the diameter of the optic nerve to test for intracranial pressure, detection of previously undiagnosed rib fractures, diagnosis of bowel obstruction, and overcoming difficult intravenous access. All of these procedures, he reported, have been achieved without delay or unnecessary movement of very ill people, and ultimately, the service that is provided frees up hospital ultrasound departments for more in-depth diagnoses.

"The M-Turbo system is extremely user-friendly, so I can scan with it effortlessly while still interacting with patients. I am finding new uses for it every day, and I firmly believe that portable focused bedside sonography will become as important as the stethoscope in the future, and every doctor in every specialty should be proficient in its use,” Dr. Donal concluded.

The system was developed by SonoSite, Inc. (Bothell, WA, USA). The company is a developer of hand-carried ultrasound systems. SonoSite's small, lightweight systems are expanding the use of ultrasound across the clinical spectrum by cost-effectively bringing high performance ultrasound to the point of patient care.

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