ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1632908
This article is part of the Research TopicPOCUS for Neonates: Advancing Care with Point-of-Care UltrasoundView all 7 articles
"Utility of point-of-care ultrasound of the liver in the neonatal intensive care unit: experience from a case series"
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Neonatology, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Medical College and Hospital, Pune, India
- 2Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, University of California, UC Davis Children’s hospital, Sacramento, USA, Sacramento, United States
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Introduction-Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly being utilized for management of sick and premature neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While neonatologist- performed cranial, lung and cardiac ultrasound have become standard of care in many NICUs across the world, the use of POCUS for evaluation of the liver remains relatively unexplored. Material and methods-This case series included neonates admitted to a tertiary-care NICU between January 2021 and April 2025 with radiological liver abnormalities detected on point-of-care ultrasound by treating neonatal physicians. Cases were identified from stored ultrasound images, and clinical data were extracted from electronic and physical medical records. Results-Six cases were identified, in whom a liver POCUS performed by the treating physician revealed a radiological liver abnormality for presenting symptoms that did not include cholestasis or deranged liver function tests. The conditions diagnosed included liver hemangioma, total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), liver hematoma, hepatic abscess, hepatic TPN extravasation and portal vein thrombosis. This case series demonstrates the significant role of liver POCUS for diagnosis of various conditions in neonates, that may be haematological, cardiac, infectious, haemorrhagic or iatrogenic in origin. Incorporation of liver POCUS into NICU protocols for screening symptomatic infants, particularly those with umbilical venous catheters, pulmonary hypertension, congestive cardiac failure or unexplained deterioration, may expedite early diagnosis and management of such conditions.
Keywords: point-of-care ultrasound, Liver, neonate, PoCUS, neonatal intensive care
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sohane, Deshpande, Nagpal, Singh and Suryawanshi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pradeep Suryawanshi, Department of Neonatology, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Medical College and Hospital, Pune, India
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