Background: Lumbar puncture (LP) is commonly needed in hospitalized patients for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Traditional landmark identification by palpation of the lumbar spine and pelvis often has a low success rate. There is strong evidence showing that the use of ultrasound leads to higher success rates, along with other important patient-centered outcomes such […]

Background: Medicine procedure services (MPS) increasingly perform bedside procedures such as lumbar puncture (LP). While rates of major complications are low, success rates in the literature are widely variable and dependent on patient body habitus, patient positioning, operator experience, and use of ultrasound guidance.1 Many trainees report discomfort with their skill in performing and supervising […]

Background: The clinical evaluation of febrile infants less than 28 days has been extensively studied with the aim to improve the sensitivity in identifying those infants at risk for invasive bacterial infections while decreasing the harm of unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedures. Even though bacterial meningitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality, the incidence is […]