Ultrasound in Pediatric Pneumonia

This study looks at how well point of care ultrasound performs in the evaluation for pneumonia in a pediatric emergency department. Two study arms were compared - an ultrasound first approach, in which patients did not necessarily require a chest xray, and a chest xray first approach, followed by an ultrasound. The authors hypothesized that using ultrasound could reduce the number of chest xrays needed. They performed follow up to see if there was any difference in return visits or antibiotic prescriptions. Impressive results followed!