Ultrasound for Otolaryngologists and Head and Neck Surgeons: What I Learned from Lifetime Practice

Abstract

I have been invited to reflect on in this chapter what stimulated me to develop an interest in office-based ultrasound in lieu of continuing with the standard imaging by radiology. I learned the methodology from a skilled, highly published radiologist who was also department chair of diagnostic imaging and intervention. He concentrated his imaging interests to the head and neck to include MRI, PET scan, CT scan, and all aspects of ultrasound. His belief was that no one specialty owns ultrasound and in fact the technology belongs best in the hands of the clinician. For 12 years prior to my retirement from clinical practice in 2009, head and neck ultrasound had been an integral part of the assessment of every head and neck patient. With a practice heavily skewed toward thyroid and parathyroid disorders, ultrasound is integral to diagnosis, biopsy, and follow-up. Less common conditions such as lymphoma, inflammatory nodal enlargement, metastatic lymphadenopathy, cysts, congenital masses, hematoma, and abscess formation similarly are amenable to first-visit ultrasound. There are many reasons to develop this tool and it is instructive to examine the pros and cons along with considerations for the future.