Implementation of point-of-care ultrasonography in an infectious disease ward.

INTRODUCTION: Point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) has emerged as an essential supplement to physical examination in many specialties. In contrast, its use by infectious diseases (ID) specialists remains anecdotal. Here, we report on the acquisition of an ultrasonography device in a French ID ward, and we describe its everyday use. METHODS: A preliminary audit was conducted to evaluate the potential impact of the acquisition of an ultrasonography device. A second audit was performed during the first year following the acquisition of the device to quantify its everyday use. We also evaluated the impact of POCUS implementation on medical imaging requests by comparing the number of intra-hospital transports before and after the acquisition. RESULTS: According to the first audit, 81 of the 199 (41%) imaging examinations that were prescribed during a two-month period could have been replaced by POCUS. During the first year following the acquisition of the ultrasonography device, POCUS was performed 240 times by 31 different operators. The operators were a senior physician, an intern, and a medical student in 94 (39%), 135 (57%), and 11 (5%) cases, respectively. The organs most frequently explored were the genito-urinary tract (n=74), the joints (n=35), and the lungs/pleura (n=35). Acquisition of the device was followed by a significant decrease in the number of transports to the ultrasonography room, whereas the total number of transports to the medical imaging ward did not change. CONCLUSION: Opportunities to use POCUS in the ID ward are numerous. POCUS training should be part of the ID specialist's curriculum.

A strobe multicenter descriptive study of 55 infectious aortitis.

Infectious aortitis (IA) is a rare and severe disease. The treatment classically associates open surgery with prolonged antibiotic therapy. This study aimed to describe clinical characteristics, medical and surgical supports in a large and current series of IA.We conducted a retrospective multicenter study of native aorta IA, between 2000 and 2019. Inclusion criteria were the presence of a microorganism on blood culture, aortic sample or any other validated technique and structural anomaly in imaging.We included 55 patients (85% men), with a median age of 65. Microbiology data substantially differed from previous studies with 12 Gram-negative rods IA, of which only 3 due to Salmonella spp., 24 Gram-positive cocci IA of which 12 Streptococcus spp., and 18 IA due to intracellular growth and/or fastidious microorganisms, of which 8 Coxiella burnetii, 3 Treponema pallidum, and 5 tuberculosis suspicious cases. Fifteen patients (27%) presented with thoracic IA, 31 (56%) with abdominal IA, and 9 (16%) with thoraco-abdominal IA. Eight patients had no surgery, 41 underwent open surgery, only 4 endovascular aneurysm repair, and 2 a combination of these 2 techniques. Nine patients died before 1-month follow-up. There was no difference in the mortality rate between the different types of germ or localization of IA.The variety of germs involved in IA increases. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography scan is a very useful tool for diagnosis. Surgery is still mainly done in open approach and a prospective multicenter study seems necessary to better determine the place of endovascular aneurysm repair versus open surgery.