Emergency Ultrasound Made Easy

...There are many helpful hints and clinically relevant scenes and pictures for the uninitiated to get a taste for the use of this core subject in Emergency Medicine. When combined with a practical, 'hands-on' course, this book will be part of the essential preparation for the FCEM for specialist registrars in Emergency Medicine. Highly recommended.
Irish Medical Student

This is a small, soft-backed, pocket book of just over 160 pages. It is written primarily for specialists in emergency medicine, surgery and intensive care and not for radiologists. Like all made easy books its aim is to provide a quick entry into the subject and act as an aide memoir for those faced with assessing a patient with ultrasound in an acute situation. Each chapter is devoted to a specific problem, e.g., aorta, deep vein thrombus or the painful hip. The clinical presentation of each condition is outlined and instruction is given on how ultrasound fits into the diagnosis and management. The book tries to teach a way of thinking: asking binary questions with yes/no answers that ultrasound can achieve rather than more difficult open-ended questions. An example in assessment of the painful hip is not to ask ultrasound to tell you why the hip is painful but to ask whether there is a hip effusion or not. In this way, the inexperienced user can glean useful information out of their ultrasound examination.

Simple drawings are used to show probe position and example ultrasound images are provided. These images are taken from the type of relatively cheap portable ultrasound machine that is likely to be present in the emergency department. There are useful tips and handy hints on how to answer the binary question posed. Importantly, the book tells the reader what ultrasound can and cannot tell you in each scenario, and goes onto say what to do next. The authors repeatedly remind the reader that they are not trying to provide the sort of ultrasound examination that a sonographer or radiologist would perform; sometimes the next procedure is to request an in-depth ultrasound examination.

The book has well-structured headings enabling easy reference. It has a friendly style and is not in the least intimidating. It is a very sensible exposition of ultrasound usage by the medical non-radiologist. The concept of focused assessment with sonography in trauma (FAST) is well established and this book is a logical extension of that concept. I know that some radiologists are disturbed by the spread of ultrasound outside the control of radiology but that is a somewhat selfish response. It is inevitable that cheap ultrasound machines will be bought and used by non-radiologists when radiology departments cannot provide a timely service, particularly so in an acute presentation. I would encourage radiologists to make sure that those using ultrasound in this way are taught appropriate skills and know their limitations. This book is a good place for them to start. I like the final quote given, a fool with a stethoscope will still be a fool with an ultrasound. I strongly urge each practitioner to buy a copy.
Clinical Radiology Journal