6533b7d4fe1ef96bd12629a9

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Real-time ultrasonography in the otolaryngology office setting

subject

description

Over the past two decades, diagnostic ultrasonography has evolved into an extensively used noninvasive imaging modality. It plays a vital role in the disciplines of vascular surgery, cardiology, neonatology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, gynecology, and urology, to name a few, but it is in the field of obstetrics that this technology has been maximally used as an office procedure to evaluate the status of the fetus. In the evaluation of head and neck disorders, ultrasonography has been the subject of sporadic reports for the past 15 years.le3 However, except for the evaluation of thyroid masses,4 it has never been widely accepted in the United States as a diagnostic modality, and has taken a back seat to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Contrary to this trend, in Europe diagnostic ultrasonography has been embraced by otolaryngologists with far greater enthusiasm and has, in many centers, been incorporated into the routine evaluation of patients with neck masses and even sinus disease.‘,” Increasingly, the use of this technology has evolved even further, with the procedure being performed by the clinician in the office setting, with a view to better correlate the clinical features with the ultrasonographic findings. In fact, ultrasonography today constitutes an integral part of many European otolaryngology training programs. This paper is not intended to compare state