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How do you look for signs of a pleural effusion with ultrasound?
Place your ultrasound probe in the mid axillary line with the probe marker placed towards the patient's head.
Find the movement of the diaphragm and scan just above the diaphragm.
In normal lung, air scatters the ultrasound signal, and you are not able to see structures above the diaphragm.
With a pleural effusion, you can see:
- anechoic fluid above the diaphragm
- consolidated lung moving like a jelly fish
- the spine above the diaphragm
