Imaging of the Equine Abdomen Using Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) - A Resource for the Equine Practitioner

Wireless ultrasound (US) probes for point of care (POC) evaluation of horses presented for veterinary evaluation of colic have become widely available in recent years. The availability and performance of this technology mean POCUS is readily available to the equine practitioner and the technology is well suited to patient evaluation or serial monitoring in first opinion practice. In human health care and veterinary contexts, it has been suggested that there is a need for practitioners to better appreciate the value of POCUS for assessment of gastrointestinal structure and function. This study was conducted as a narrative review of the literature relating to the use of abdominal sonography in equine clinical practice, juxtaposed with recent publications on the use of POCUS in human health care settings and extended to include the authors' experiences of POCUS in the evaluation of horses presenting with select abdominal conditions. Common sonographic views are described and representative images are presented to facilitate practitioner use of the technique. By distillation of the available literature and review of sonographic techniques our aim is to provide a resource for equine practitioners.