Clinical Review: Point-of-Care Ultrasound in the Evaluation of COVID-19

Abrams, Eric R.; Rose, Gabriel; Fields, J. Matthew; Esener, Dasia

Abstract The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused a pandemic overwhelming healthcare systems around the world. Hospitals around the world, including the United States, have been struggling to adapt to the influx of patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by SARS-CoV2, given limited resources and high demand for medical care. Point of care ultrasound provides numerous benefits to emergency providers caring for patients with COVID-19 including decreasing resource utilization, assisting in diagnosis, guiding management of the critically ill patient, and aiding in rapid triage of patients under investigations for COVID-19. The studies currently being published have established a typical set of ultrasound findings in COVID-19. Point of care lung ultrasound is rapid and accessible in most emergency departments in the United States and even if many resource-poor settings. This article seeks to provide emergency physicians with a guide to sonographic findings in COVID-19 and an algorithm by which point of care lung ultrasound may assist emergency physicians caring for these patients during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.