Better With Ultrasound: Lumbar Puncture

The performance of a lumbar puncture is generally associated with a high rate of success and a favorable risk profile. Nonetheless, the use of ultrasound for procedural guidance has been demonstrated to reduce the rate of failure and the risk of specific complications, especially in patients with difficult surface anatomy. Many individual ultrasound techniques have been described in the literature; this article presents a systematic approach for incorporating these tools into bedside practice and includes a series of illustrative figures and narrated video presentations to demonstrate the techniques described.