🗞️ Ultrasound Application News

New FDA warnings highlight a rare but serious aspiration risk for patients taking GLP-1 medications before elective surgery due to delayed gastric emptying. This blog explores how point-of-care gastric ultrasound can provide real-time assessment of stomach contents to better inform anesthesia decisions and improve preoperative safety. It also outlines best practices for implementation and emphasizes the importance of standardized training to support consistent, reliable patient risk assessment.

You can read the full blog post here.

📚 Case Study: Gastric Ultrasound

Background:
This 29-year-old female presents with a concussion and right ankle fracture / disclocation following an electric scooter accident. She does not recall the timing of her last oral intake due to her concussion. She undergoes a gastric ultrasound to assess the gastric contents as part of planning her sedation regimen prior to attempting joint reduction.

Please evaluate her stomach with ultrasound. 👇

Check out SonoSim Ultrasound Study Tools: QuestionBank Case Studies

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👩‍⚕️ Scanning & Imaging Tips: Gastric Frosted Glass Appearance RLD Position

When gastric ultrasound is performed shortly after the ingestion of solids, it often generates a 'frosted glass' appearance, which obscures the visualization of anatomic structures deep to the anterior wall of the stomach. Placing the patient in a right lateral decubitus position and repeating the exam 60 to 90 minutes later can significantly improve image quality. This improvement results from the combination of time allowing for gastric emptying and the migration of gas to non-gravity dependent regions of the stomach, which enhances sound wave transmission.

Check out Gastric Advanced Clinical Ultrasound Training

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🧠 Challenge Case of the Month: Kidney & Bladder

Case History: This 90-year-old patient presents with hypotension, vomiting, and severe abdominal pain.

Please evaluate his abdomen with ultrasound.👇

Findings: Large heterogeneous and vascular gastric mass measuring 12 cm in greatest dimension without evidence of gastric perforation or bleeding, confirmed by CT to be a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST)

✨ SonoSim Updates

 Final Reminder: New Course-Taking Experience Opt-In

The New Course-Taking Experience is here. With clearer course outlines, intuitive navigation, flexible playback options, and improved progress tracking, it’s designed to make it easier than ever to move through and complete your SonoSim courses. If no action is taken, we will automatically transition all members to the new experience on January 9th. Read the blog post.

💡 SonoSim Tips & Tricks

If you’ve been using the SonoSimulator software for over an hour and start to experience scanning issues, a quick fix is to restart Probe Setup. You can access it from any case in the SonoSimulator by clicking the Help ( ? ) button in the bottom toolbar, then selecting Probe Setup.

Important: Probe Setup is only available for probes received after September 2021.

😂 LOLtrasound

Credit: @thebluntsonographer