Sonography is utilized in virtually every field of medicine practiced today. From neonatal practices for viewing an unborn baby to cardiology departments that need to view the muscle structure and function of the heart, an ultrasound is used for diagnosis and much more. There are pros and cons to virtually everything, however, and while sonography is widely accepted to be a practically harmless and tremendously beneficial technique, knowing the advantages and disadvantages as well as the capabilities and the drawbacks of it can help you understand much more about it. In some cases, it’s the best option available while in others it may not be the first choice. Here’s a look at the basic pros and cons.
Advantages of Sonography
- An investment in the equipment is reasonably inexpensive and can be utilized for numerous functions
- It can display the overall structure and function of nearly all major organs
- It is totally noninvasive
- It poses no real risks to the patient
- It costs the patient much less than other imaging choices such as MRIs
- The patient doesn’t need to leave their bed since the tests can be ran virtually anywhere
- It can image bone surfaces, muscle, and tissue
- It can separate solid and fluid filled space from one another in the images
- Its real time capabilities allow it to be used for guiding biopsies and other procedures and can ensure that the best images are gathered during diagnostic scans
Disadvantages of Sonography
- The results of the ultrasound are dependent upon the skill and training of the operator instead of being largely automated
- It can be difficult or impossible to scan trough bone, making brain imaging difficult.
- Gasses within the body can render ultrasounds useless and certain areas such as the lungs or pancreas can’t be scanned due to the large amount of gas between the transducer and the organ
- Ultrasound images lack a scout image. This means that after the image is captured, diligent labeling is the only way to know where it was taken
- Obese patients are much harder to scan since the dense fat layers can interfere with the sound waves
Simply put, there are far more advantages to sonography than there are disadvantages, which helps explain why it is so commonly used. While certain patients and certain conditions won’t be right for an ultrasound test, many more will be able to benefit from its use. Since it’s cheaper and safer than most other tests, there’s really no better option in most cases than to have an ultrasound.
