Ecografia à Cabeceira do Doente na Medicina Interna: Uma Mudança de Paradigma na Avaliação do Doente Agudo

The point of care ultrasound (POCUS) presents itself as the fifth pillar of the physical examination, pairing with inspec-tion, percussion, palpation and auscultation. After the initial usage, in the beginning of the 80’s for the evaluation of ab-dominal trauma, the POCUS became a daily practice in the critical patient evaluation, either in Critical Care Units or in Emergency Departments, assuming, nowadays, an impor-tant role of a large variety of clinical protocols. In this review, the authors propose to revise the established applications of POCUS and point out its practical consequences in med-ical daily routines as well as reaffirm the importance that it can and must have in pre- and post-graduated medical ed-ucation. The authors strongly believe that the competences hereby presented will, shortly, be included in the core com-petences of internal medicine