[Examination concepts and procedures in emergency ultrasonography]

As a point-of-care tool, emergency sonography has the potential to rule out or to confirm a diagnosis in the context to the leading symptom of critically ill persons. Extended focused assessment with sonography for trauma (E-FAST) and focused echo entry level (FEEL) are examples of algorithms that have been developed for this purpose. Echoscopy is another form of point-of-care sonography that is used at the bedside. It helps to answer simple questions (yes/no) and allows follow-up examinations to be made with little effort. Point-of-care sonography does not compete with normal standardized sonography because it is not able to answer medical questions in a sophisticated manner.