Competence in Critical care Echocardiography

The ICU is increasingly using echocardiography. It has been demonstrated that TTE improves patient care in 97% of critically sick patients using a condensed focus assessment procedure. When a patient has an endotracheal tube in place, TOE is the first line echocardiographic evaluation and is...

• Echocardiography is increasingly used by intensivists in the ICU to gain a better understanding of patients' problems, focusing on its usage in shock management rather than for cardiac diagnostics or therapy. The lecture aims to provide a basic understanding of echocardiographic views and their interpretation from an intensive care perspective, emphasizing that it is an introduction to a complex field requiring extensive reading and practice.