Lung Ultrasound as a Point of Care Test for Living Donor Liver Transplant Recipients.

Plain-language summary

Liver transplant is now a standard treatment for end-stage liver disease patients. Pulmonary complications are common in the perioperative period and are associated with adverse outcomes. This includes atelectasis, pneumothorax, pleural effusion, pulmonary edema, and collapse. Risk factors for the same are extensive surgery, transfusion of blood products, fluid overload, hemodynamic instability, coagulation abnormalities, renal dysfunction, and reperfusion syndrome. CXR with clinical judgment plays a key role in diagnosing pulmonary complications. However diagnostic ability of CXR is limited and moreover it is associated with unnecessary radiation exposure. Recently, lung USG has come up as an easily available tool to detect peri-op pulmonary complications. The technique is very easy to perform, less time-consuming, and totally cost-effective. Moreover, it can be easily learned by clinicians with a standard level of ability to handle an ultrasound probe for abdominal scans. In the setting of geriatric and ICU patients, fragility and immobility have a strong impact on the quality of a chest radiograph. So, the routine application of lung USG in this setting may significantly improve the outcome. Multiple studies have suggested that Lung USG is superior to CXR in diagnosing these lung conditions. Hence, this study aims to compare the lung ultrasound with CXR in detecting perioperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation.

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