It is easy to get uneasy when you are in a hospital and hear a lot of technical jargon being spoken back and forth. This is doubly true if you are in the hospital with your child where it can be so hard to control yourself from asking too many questions and getting in the way of the doctors. If you hear the term vascular ultrasound being thrown around, it can be very confusing, as most peoples familiarity with the term ultrasound is related to pregnancy. However, there is nothing to worry about as the vascular ultrasound is probably being used for a very simple reason.
What Is A Vascular Ultrasound?
To understand why a doctor would need a vascular ultrasound for your child, it is important to know what the machine actually does. Unlike a regular ultrasound machine, a vascular ultrasound looks at the tiny structures of your veins and arteries. In adults, this is helpful to check for potential aneurysms or any other blockages, but these are so rare in children that a vascular ultrasound for a child is virtually never ordered for that reason.
Why Is My Child Getting A Vascular Ultrasound?
The most common reason children will have a vascular ultrasound is to help the medical professionals insert a needle. Because children are so much smaller than adults it can be hard to find a suitable vein to insert the needle into. This is especially true for babies and infants, although it still remains a problem for older children as well. The last thing a doctor or nurse wants to do is to try and insert a needle and have it fail. That can be quite traumatising for the child, as well as for you and the medical staff. To avoid this, a vascular ultrasound will be brought in, and any risk of misplacing a needle will be drastically reduced.
Are There Any Other Reasons Why A Child Would Have A Vascular Ultrasound?
If the child has issues with circulation and the doctor is concerned about a particular area of the body not getting enough blood or they have sustained an injury and doctors want to know how to fix it, then a vascular ultrasound will be ordered. This is generally quite rare, as children seldom have problems with their vascular system (also known as the circulatory system). The only time you really see this happening is when there is a congenital disorder.
