Topic: 'The Golden Age of Wireless' (What are the various uses of wireless ultrasound in vascular access and beyond)

Mauro Pittiruti, MD, born in 1954, has been working as a surgeon at the Catholic University Hospital (Rome, Italy) since 1980. He is interested in the area of venous access for parenteral nutrition since the early 80’s.

From 1990 on, he has focused most of his clinical and scientific activity on central venous access devices, becoming one of the leading experts in this area. In 1998 he founded the Italian Group for Long Term Venous Access (GAVeCeLT) and since 2000, he organizes and coordinates all the educational and scientific activities of this group. In 2005, he was one of the founding members of the European Vascular Access Network (EVAN) and in 2009 the World Congress on Vascular Access (WoCoVA).
At present, he is Professor of Surgery at the Catholic University, where he is Clinical Coordinator for the Vascular Access Service. He is an active member of several scientific societies, including ESPEN, AVA and WoCoVA .
In 2009, he received the AVA Suzanne Herbst Award for Excellence in Vascular Access

Objectives

 At the end of the presentation the attendees will:

• Understand the advantages of wireless ultrasound
• Understand the use of ultrasound for pre-procedural vein evaluation (RaCeVA)
• Have reviewed ultrasound for detection of pneumothorax 
• Define different strategies for using ultrasound for tip navigation
• Have reviewed the procedures using ultrasound for tip location (with and without bubble test)