This review highlights the ultrasound findings reported from a number of studies and case reports and discusses the unifying findings from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients and from the avian (H7N9) and H1N1 influenza epidemics. We discuss the potential role for portable point-of-care ultrasound (PPOCUS) as a safe and effective bedside option in the initial evaluation, management, and monitoring of disease progression in patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may remain viable in the air for up to three hours, placing health care workers in close proximity to aerosolizing procedures particularly at high risk for infection. This combined with the drastic shortage of negative pressure rooms hospitals worldwide has led to the rapid innovation of novel biohazard isolation hoods, which can be adapted to create negative pressure isolation environments around the patient's airway using the hospital wall suction, which carries many limitations, including weaker suction capabilities, single patient use, and immobility. Here, we report our Vacuum Assisted Negative Pressure Isolation Hood (VANISH) system that uses a mobile and readily available in most hospital operating rooms Stryker Neptune™ (Stryker Corporation, Kalamazoo, Michigan) high-powered suction system to more effectively create a negative pressure biohazard isolation environment. VANISH has been utilized regularly in an anesthesia practice of 30+ providers and, to date, there have been no documented COVID-19 infections.