TF - Meconium Peritonitis

Take Home Points

How to orient yourself in a fetus

• Many teaching cases will give you only a few images... It is important to orient yourself quickly!
• The key to doing this is to look at the bones
• In this case, the spine is visible as well as some ribs.  If you make this observation, you are either in the chest or abdomen. Once liver is identified and no heart visible, you know that you are in the abdomen.

clues to abdominal calcifications

• Your brain will want to make these linear echogenic structures into ribs, however they will either be to anterior or just deep to the ribs
• Again, identifying the bones and salient anatomy will help to realize that these "bones" are not in the anatomic location

Meconium peritonitis: General info

• Caused by bowel perforation
• Prognosis is often good.
  • Poor indicators: Bowel dilitation or meconium pseudocyst
• Need to check for cystic fibrosis and rule out infection as cause of the calcifications