POCUS: CAUDAL VENA CAVA

This chapter focuses on ultrasonography of the caudal vena cava (CVC) in small animals and three published methodologies. It also focuses on cardiac, pulmonary and thoracic ultrasonography for integrating additional point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) information for complete patient volume assessment. Three different methods have been described and studied in the veterinary literature: the subxiphoid CVC view; the intercostal CVC view; and the paralumbar CVC view. CVC evaluation in small animals still requires further scientific validation in actual clinical settings. However, the authors have established reference values that may be used for the CVC using the three described POCUS CVC methods in healthy dogs. Reference values for the hepatic and paralumbar CVC views, expressed via allometric scaling, are presented. The main purpose of a POCUS CVC is the evaluation of volume status and indirectly cardiovascular function of the patient.