Ever since medical practitioners realised the potential of ultrasound technology in solving health-related problems, the ubiquity of the know-how in the medical field is on a steady rise. Thanks to vascular ultrasound, doctors today can diagnose vascular issues in real-time and non-invasively. The elimination of needles or anesthesia is a welcome relief to patients. However, it doesn't mean that vascular ultrasound technology has reached the peak. Medical engineers are continually trying to find different ways of leveraging on vascular ultrasound technology to further improve medical procedures. If you have a piece of ultrasound equipment in your medical facility, then you might be interested in the current vascular ultrasound technologies mentioned in this article. Read on.
Vascular Ultrasound for Catheter Placement
You will agree that patients are increasingly getting concerned with catheterisation, especially physically weak patients. Such invasive intervention always poses a risk to this group of patients. A catheter placement procedure must be executed cautiously. For example, being unable to see the trajectory of the needle during catheter placement places the patient at risk of complications such as hematoma and arterial perforation. Furthermore, medical assistants usually need several tries before they can get the catheter positioned in the right place.
Vascular ultrasound imaging for catheter placement eliminates these drawbacks by increasing the success rate on the first try. Moreover, ultrasound-guided catheter placement reduces the possibility of complications, thereby eliminating the need for patient concern. Ultimately, vascular ultrasound-guided catheter placement allows medical practitioners to provide quality and safe treatment.
Portable Vascular Ultrasound
Since ultrasound technology has made the diagnosis of vascular conditions easy and fast, patients are increasingly demanding quality echo exams. It means that clinicians are today conducting more echo exams than before. Since current vascular ultrasound machines can't cope with this increased workload, medical engineers have developed portable devices. Although they are small in size, portable vascular ultrasound devices maintain diagnostic confidence while still providing quality imaging. Additionally, these mobile systems can automatically optimise a vascular ultrasound image, thereby eliminating the need for manual optimisation by a sonographer. The portable gadgets are best used at point-of-care (POC) stations, such as emergency rooms and intensive care facilities where portability is necessary.
Gel-free Vascular Ultrasound Probe Covers
Traditionally, medical practitioners have relied on ultrasound gels as a coupling agent. However, some ultrasound gels contain dyes and additives that might interfere with the accuracy of results. Nonetheless, recently developed ultrasound probe covers eliminate the problem, thus allowing for 100 percent gel-free vascular ultrasound procedures. All clinicians have to do is use a sterile liquid to activate the covers and perform the process. The probe covers improve diagnosis accuracy and prevent possible contamination.
