Background:   In family medicine, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is fast becoming an indispensable tool for both diagnosis and procedure. By providing focused bedside imaging that complements the history and physical examination, it enables clinicians to form a more complete clinical picture. Its adoption in primary care has been driven by advances in portable technology, the expansion of residency training, and a growing evidence base supporting clinician-performed ultrasound. However, the existing evidence remains fragmented across the domains of clinical application, education, governance, and emerging technology. We set out to review the current literature to establish where POCUS stands in family medicine and what supports its integration into day-to-day practice.

Methods:

We conducted a narrative review of the literature. We searched PubMed using six complementary thematic strategies spanning clinical applications, education, training, quality assurance, and emerging technology. Consistent with a narrative review, studies were selected purposively for their relevance to these themes rather than through an exhaustive search. Peer-reviewed studies were screened against predefined relevance criteria, and key data were extracted using a structured template. Given the methodological heterogeneity of the included studies, the findings were synthesised narratively.

Results:

The literature indicates that POCUS is being adopted across a broad range of indications in family medicine, including musculoskeletal, abdominal, cardiovascular, and respiratory assessment, as well as vascular access, preventive screening, and office-based procedures. Across studies, POCUS was consistently associated with improved bedside assessment and greater procedural accuracy, supporting more confident clinical decision-making. Successful implementation, however, depends on more than equipment: the evidence highlights the need for structured, competency-based education with supervised training, institutional support, and sustainable reimbursement models. Emerging innovations — including handheld devices, tele-ultrasound, artificial intelligence for image interpretation, and digital learning — may further support the use of POCUS in primary care.

Conclusion:

Contemporary evidence supports POCUS as an increasingly valuable component of comprehensive family medicine practice. However, sustainable integration requires more than access to technology; it depends on coordinated investment in physician education, clinical governance, and supportive health policy. Future research should prioritise economic evaluation, patient-centred outcomes, and the validation of emerging technologies to support the safe and equitable expansion of POCUS in primary care.

Minimally invasive fixation is used to reduce surgical disruption of the soft-tissue envelope around ankle and distal-tibial fractures. This narrative review examines distal-fibular minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis, distal-tibial minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis and fibular intramedullary nailing, with intra-articular pilon fractures considered separately from extra-articular metaphyseal injuries.

Minimally invasive surgery is not a single intervention. The reviewed evidence supports lower wound morbidity with some fibular-nail and limited-plating protocols, but it does not establish general functional equivalence or superiority. Existing syntheses overlap in their primary studies and combine different devices and patient groups. Distinct healing, reduction and reoperation endpoints should remain separate.

Limited exposure increases the importance of confirming length, coronal and sagittal alignment, axial rotation and syndesmotic position. The reviewed distal-tibial evidence does not define a safe malrotation threshold. Conventional radiography and fluoroscopy can miss syndesmotic displacement, while CT classification is itself sensitive to landmarks, thresholds and side-to-side variation. The association between syndesmotic malreduction and function remains unresolved.

The average short-term wound-infection risk after ankle ORIF is low, so the soft-tissue rationale for minimally invasive fixation is strongest in selected patients with compromised tissue or medical risk. Direct comparative evidence in these high-risk groups remains limited. Technique selection should be based on fracture morphology, soft-tissue condition and the ability to obtain and verify reduction. Future trials should use contemporary implants, preserve randomized allocation in analysis, separate fracture populations and report prespecified functional, radiological and complication outcomes. Multicentre comparative research should document technical failures, crossovers, conversions to open fixation and surgeon experience.

Food allergy is one of the more common chronic immune-mediated disorders of early childhood, and clinical advice about it has changed markedly over the past decade. Guidance that once favoured delaying allergenic foods now favours introducing them during infancy, a shift that rests on a small number of randomised trials whose main findings have held up under long-term follow-up and pooled analysis. Here we set out what that evidence supports and where it remains thin. The strongest case is for early introduction of peanut and of cooked egg, which produced large reductions in relative risk among infants at high risk, with protection extending into adolescence in the peanut trials; in unselected populations the effect is smaller and depends heavily on adherence. Evidence for the measures usually grouped with early introduction is weaker and more uneven. Breastfeeding aids gastrointestinal and immune maturation but has not been shown, on its own, to prevent IgE-mediated food allergy, and restricting the maternal diet in pregnancy or lactation confers no benefit. Emollient-based skin barrier interventions did not prevent eczema in two large trials, and pooled analysis raises the possibility that they increase, rather than reduce, food allergy and skin infection. Routine probiotic or prebiotic supplementation is not supported for primary prevention. Many of the remaining difficulties are practical: guideline uptake is incomplete, counselling varies between providers, and the detail that determines whether introduction is done safely is often missing from summary advice. We consider these questions with attention to Saudi Arabia, where local data on primary prevention are scarce.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of mortality globally and represent a major public health burden in Saudi Arabia. Awareness of both modifiable and genetic cardiovascular risk factors plays a crucial role in prevention and early risk reduction. This study aimed to assess knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors and genetic risk awareness among adults in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire distributed via Google Forms between November and December 2025 among adults aged ≥18 years residing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, family history, knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors, and awareness of genetic susceptibility. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and associations were evaluated using the Pearson chi-square test (or Fisher's exact test, where appropriate). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results:

A total of 485 participants completed the study (49.5% aged 18–24 years, 56.3% female). Overall, 75.9% of respondents exhibited good knowledge (≥70%) regarding cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. High awareness was observed for smoking (97.3%), obesity (92.6%), and hypertension (89.7%) as risk factors, whereas knowledge gaps were noted for the protective role of HDL cholesterol (62.9%) and excessive salt intake (62.7%). Most participants acknowledged genetic factors increased CVD risk (67.2%) and expressed interest in further genetic education (78.0%). Good knowledge was significantly higher among males compared to females (83.0% vs. 70.3%; p = 0.001) and among never smokers compared to current and former smokers (77.7% vs. 57.1% and 58.8%, respectively; p = 0.019). Knowledge levels did not differ significantly by age, education, occupation, income, physical activity, or family history of CVD (p > 0.05).

Conclusion:

The findings indicate that adults in Riyadh have good awareness of general cardiovascular disease risk factors, particularly lifestyle-related behaviors. However, important gaps remain in understanding metabolic risk factors, genetic susceptibility, and personal health risk assessment. The observed knowledge–action gap highlights the need for targeted public health interventions that emphasize individualized risk awareness, improved health literacy, and better integration of genetic and clinical risk communication within primary healthcare services.