Chest Ultrasound: A New, Easy, and Radiation-Free Tool to Detect Retrosternal Clot After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery.

At the beginning of 2014, we initiated a learning program on lung ultrasound (LUS) to evaluate common pulmonary complications after pediatric cardiac surgery, including pleural effusion, diaphragmatic excursion anomalies, and pneumothorax. LUS was performed by a linear 9-MHz probe (Philips iE-33; Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). We theorized that the use of the linear probe may be helpful for diagnosis of new retrosternal clots or hematomas or for better definition of clots or hematomas incidentally detected on chest x-ray or echocardiography. In particular, after the first case, in which the incidental diagnosis of a big retrosternal clot helped us to resolve a difficult clinical picture, we started to examine the retrosternal area systematically, which allowed us to detect clots in other patients.