title: [The clinical relevance of sonography in intensive care units].
abstract: 336 sonographic examinations were performed with a portable ultrasound scanner on 217 patients in intensive-care units. In 302/336 (90%) cases, the region of clinical interest could be demonstrated completely or mostly by ultrasound. The clinical question could be answered by ultrasound in 270/310 (87%) cases partially. In 17/210 (5%) cases the clinical question could not be answered by ultrasound, in 26/336 (8%) cases there was no clinical question at all. 211/336 (63%) sonographic examinations were retrospectively classified as clinically relevant. A large part of clinically relevant examinations was found at the sonographic evaluation of the liver (100%), of the pericardium (96%), of the kidneys (89%), of the blood vessels (80%), of the gallbladder (78%), of the pleural space (76%) and on sonographic evaluation of patients with blunt abdominal trauma (91%). A relatively small part of clinically relevant examinations was found at sonographic evaluation of circumscribed or free intraabdominal fluid (59% resp. 57%), of cholestasis (53%) and of suspected neoplasm (11%). Sonographic examinations of the pancreas (40%) or the spleen (33%) and examinations without any clinical question (50%) also showed little clinical relevance.
authors.affiliation: Radiologische Klinik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schunk
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pohan
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schild
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
vernacular_title: Die klinische Relevanz der Sonographie auf Intensivstation.