Future Perspective in Abdominal Ultrasound

Abstract

Abdominal ultrasound is one of the most commonly used imaging methods currently. It is different from other imaging such as computed tomography because surgeons (especially abdominal surgeons, hepatobiliary pancreatic surgeons, surgical oncologists, and minimally invasive surgeons) can and should perform ultrasound examination by themselves.

Abdominal ultrasound, including transabdominal ultrasound, intraoperative ultrasound, laparoscopic ultrasound, and endoscopic ultrasound, can provide various types of diagnostic information which are otherwise not easily or practically available. In addition, ultrasound can guide or assist various surgical procedures such as needle biopsy and ablation of lesions in real time much easier than other imaging methods. Advantages of transabdominal, intraoperative, and laparoscopic ultrasound include high accuracy, safety, and speed, with comprehensive anatomical information, dynamic blood flow information, and real-time guidance capability, and these outweigh its disadvantages such as specific instrumentation requirement and slow learning curve.

History of the use of ultrasound by surgeons, future perspective of surgeon-performed ultrasound, learning of abdominal ultrasound in future, and new and promising technology in abdominal ultrasound (including video clips) are described in this chapter.

The use of abdominal ultrasound by surgeons is expected to increase along with more formal training in ultrasound for surgeons. New ultrasound technologies such as ultrasound contrast enhancement, 3/4-dimensional ultrasound, fusion technique, elastic imaging, and quantitative ultrasound will be employed more during future abdominal ultrasound and will facilitate interventional procedures. Being like the surgeon’s stethoscope and versatile transabdominally and intraoperatively, ultrasound is a valuable technique which is recommended to master for surgeons in various fields to improve surgical decision-making and surgical outcomes.