Anesthesia-induced atelectasis assessed by lung sonography

Background Atelectasis and poorly ventilated lung areas are negative consequences of general anesthesia observed in adult as well as in children. The reported incidence of this anesthesia-induced atelectasis in children is high and comes from 83 % to almost 100 %. The diagnosis of this entity is difficult to do at the bedside; they are commonly small and mostly invisible to standard chest X-ray images. More complex diagnosing techniques like CT scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can easily diagnose atelectasis although they are strategically impractical. Ultrasound is a bedside, rapid, noninvasive and radiation-free technique. Lung ultrasound (LUS) has an important role for diagnosing pulmonary diseases in children although it role for detecting anesthesia-induced atelectasis has not been determined yet.