Perioperative Point-of-Care Ultrasound Utilization in Abdominal Organ Transplantation. Part I: Preoperative and Intraoperative Care.

In this Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia (SATA) white paper, experts in abdominal transplant anesthesia and critical care reviewed the current literature and practice behaviors to create a comprehensive review of the utilization of point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) in abdominal organ transplantation (AOT) and to provide evidenced-based recommendations for clinicians to utilize perioperative PoCUS to improve patient outcomes in real time. Organized by phase of care-preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative-this paper includes a discussion of transthoracic, pulmonary, gastric, and transesophageal echocardiography. Part I of this paper focuses on preoperative and intraoperative PoCUS while the upcoming Part II focuses on utilizing PoCUS in the immediate postoperative and intensive care setting to guide fluid management, identify venous congestion, identify causes of shock, and estimate hemodynamics in AOT patients.