Meditation as an Adjunct to the Management of Acute Pain.

Purpose Of Review: We aim to present current understanding and evidence for meditation, mostly referring to mindfulness meditation, for the management of acute pain and potential opportunities of incorporating it into the acute pain service practice.

Recent Findings: There is conflicting evidence concerning meditation as a remedy in acute pain. While some studies have found a bigger impact of meditation on the emotional response to a painful stimulus than on the reduction in actual pain intensities, functional Magnet Resonance Imaging has enabled the identification of various brain areas involved in meditation-induced pain relief.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound Diagnosis of Acute High Altitude Illness: A Case Report.

With the advent of high-quality portable ultrasound machines, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has gained interest as a promising diagnostic tool for patients with high altitude illness. Although POCUS is used successfully in hospital environments to detect interstitial pulmonary edema and increased intracranial pressure, the relationship between specific sonographic criteria and high altitude illness is still unclear. We report the case of a healthy 32-y-old male who developed acute respiratory distress and neurologic impairment at 4321 m while participating in a high altitude medical research expedition.

Point-of-Care Ultrasound Diagnosis of Community-Acquired Pneumonia in a High-Altitude, Resource-Poor Setting.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for the evaluation of patients with suspected high-altitude pulmonary edema can be a useful tool in remote, high-altitude areas. The same technique can also yield high differential diagnostic accuracy for other relevant causes of acute respiratory distress at high altitude. With the recent development of high-quality, hand-held ultrasound devices, POCUS can be used with increasing reliability in such environments.