Clinical Use of Lung Ultrasound by Emergency and Intensive Care Physicians: A Swiss National Survey

Sep 29, 2026

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is increasingly used in emergency and intensive care settings, yet its real-world implementation, training pathways, indications, and adoption barriers remain insufficiently characterized. A 27-question online survey was distributed via snowball sampling to emergency departments and intensive care units across Switzerland. Among 198 participants, 95.5% used ultrasound and 82.8% used LUS clinically, mainly for dyspnea, shock, and hypoxemia. Limited standardized protocols and barriers such as time constraints and limited training opportunities were reported.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

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Journal of Clinical Ultrasound RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Clinical Use of Lung Ultrasound by Emergency and Intensive Care Physicians: A Swiss National Survey Norah Villars1,2 | Thomas Berlet1 | Luca Cioccari1,2 1Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Kantonsspital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland | 2Department of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Bern, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland Correspondence: Luca Cioccari ([luca.cioccari@ksa.ch](luca.cioccari@ksa.ch)) Received: 4 April 2025 | Revised: 14 May 2025 | Accepted: 11 July 2025 Keywords: critical care | emergency medicine | lung | survey | ultrasonography ABSTRACT Purpose: Lung ultrasound (LUS) has gained popularity in the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) . However, little is known about its use, training, indications, and implementation barriers. Therefore, we performed a survey to evaluate the current practice of LUS among ED and ICU physicians with varying experience levels across regions in Switzerland. Methods: A 27-question online survey was disseminated across 108 EDs and 75 ICUs using snowball sampling via department heads. Results: Of all 198 participants from 183 invited departments (49.0% ED physicians, 42.3% ICU physicians, 8.7% from other specialties), 190 (95.5%) use ultrasound and 164 (82.8%) use LUS in their clinical practice. Predominantly, LUS is utilized for evaluating dyspnea (95.9%), shock (76.2%), and hypoxemia (73.5%). ICU physicians used LUS more for invasive procedures, while less experienced physicians had lower certification rates. Standardized protocols for LUS examination or documentation were reported by only 22.5% and 38.9% of responders, respectively. The main barriers identified were time constraints, lack of training opportunities, and underestimation of LUSs diagnostic value. Conclusions: LUS is widely adopted and considered highly relevant by ED and ICU physicians. However, disparities in usage and proficiency were observed between ICU and non-ICU physicians, as well as between more and less experienced practitioners. Addressing the identified training gaps and promoting standardized protocol adoption are imperative for optimizing LUSs integration into patient care. 1 | Introduction The utilization of lung ultrasound (LUS) has been documented since the early 1990s (Mathis 1992) and has subsequently evolved into a diverse range of applications, ranging from fundamental diagnostic procedures such as the identification of pleural effusions to more sophisticated applications including ultrasound-guided interventions and the characterization of lung tumors. In recent years, point-of-care LUShas gained popularity in emergency and critical care settings, with an increasing number of clinical conditions being diagnosed using this method. These include pneumothorax, pneumonia, and pneumonitis, atelectasis, lung contusion, pulmonary oedema, and interstitial disease. The most evident advantages of LUS over other imaging modalities are the capacity to obtain real-time images at the bedside, the ability to perform repeated examinations when necessary, the high diagnostic accuracy for various pathologies, and the avoidance of radiation exposure (Lichtenstein et al. 2004; Volpicelliet al. 2012) . The international evidence-based recommendations for LUS are focused on the emergency and critical care settings, emphasizing its importance in the diagnosis and efficient management of such patients (Volpicelli et al. 2012) . Indeed, LUS has the potential to improve patient outcomes | [Correction added on October 10, 2025, after first online publication: author affiliation has been updated] | | --- | | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Clinical Ultrasound published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. |

FAQs

How widely is lung ultrasound used among emergency and ICU physicians in Switzerland?

Among 198 participants, 95.5% used ultrasound and 82.8% used lung ultrasound (LUS) in clinical practice.

For which clinical problems is LUS most commonly used?

LUS is predominantly used for evaluating dyspnea (95.9%), shock (76.2%), and hypoxemia (73.5%).

What barriers and gaps limit broader, more standardized LUS adoption?

Key barriers included time constraints, lack of training opportunities, and underestimation of LUS diagnostic value, while few responders reported standardized protocols for examination or documentation.

Sep 29, 2026

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