Role of surgeon-performed ultrasound on further management of patients with acute abdominal pain: a randomised controlled clinical trial

Abstract

NCT00550511.

Benefit of early abdominal ultrasonography in non-surgical patients admitted to the emergency department: a pilot study

“…Compared to similar surgical studies, the present study included a wide variety of different symptom complexes due to the enrollment criteria used. In contrast to our study, however, those studies which concentrated on specific disease patterns (e.g., acute abdominal pain) failed to document differences in length of stay [1,11]. In the subgroups ''abdominal pain'' (p = 0.0333) and ''cardiopulmonary disorders'' (p = 0.0207), a shorter length of stay was associated with early ultrasonography, while in the subgroup ''infectious disease/fever'' mean length of stay was prolonged in the early-ultrasonography group (p = 0.0211).…”

“…Nevertheless, the indication for its use must be clearly established in order to optimize its potential benefits in the management of patients in the emergency department [1]. It is neither reasonable nor efficient to subject each and every patient presenting to the emergency department to abdominal ultrasonography without reference to their symptoms or putative diagnosis [11].…”

“…It is neither reasonable nor efficient to subject each and every patient presenting to the emergency department to abdominal ultrasonography without reference to their symptoms or putative diagnosis [11]. Standardized operating procedures for patient admission can be useful in facilitating decisionmaking during hectic emergency situations but cannot replace the physician's common sense and experience in ordering further diagnostic procedures and initiating treatment [1,10,12].…”

“…Previous studies have shown ultrasonography as a primary imaging technique to be potentially beneficial with respect to minimizing the length of stay in the emergency department by reducing the time needed for diagnostics as well as in determining patients' ultimate disposition [1][2][3]. Compared to other commonly employed imaging techniques, e.g., computed tomography (CT), there is a significant time advantage in establishing a diagnosis and initiating treatment [4][5][6].…”

Surgeon-Performed Ultrasound as Preoperative Localization Study in Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism

“…As surgeons become more familiar with the use of US, it is more often applied as an extension of the physical examination during the initial office visit [20]. This trend is not restricted to parathyroid disease, it is also observed in other fields of medicine [21,22,23]. In our opinion, one of the main benefits of S-US is the support of sonographic findings prior to and during surgical treatment.…”