Ultrasonography of the abdomen and pelvis

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Author: Mikael Häggström [notes 1]

Planning

Choice of exam

For patients presenting with symptoms that are less specific for any certain organ, such as unspecific acute abdominal pain, consider an abdominal/pelvic CT instead.

Locations

General screening

For symptoms of the upper abdomen, it is a proper custom to perform a general screening of the following organs:

  • Pancreas, mainly for dilatation of the pancreatic duct, or obvious tumors.
  • Liver, for echogenicity and focal changes.
    In case of suspected pathology, see: Ultrasonography of the liver
  • Biliary tract, for gallstones (see ultrasonography of gallstones) and dilatation of the intrahepatic or extrahepatic bile ducts. The common bile duct is normally up to 8 mm.[1]
  • Spleen, mainly for size, where 11 cm is a common cutoff.
    In case of suspected pathology, see: Ultrasonography of the spleen

Also, it is generally easy to have a quick glance at the kidneys just to exclude hydronephrosis.
In case of suspected pathology, see: Ultrasonography of the urinary system

Ultrasonographies of the lower abdomen can generally be focused on the condition requested in the referral.

Diseases and conditions

Appendicitis

Aneurysm

Cirrhosis

Notes

  1. For a full list of contributors, see article history. Creators of images are attributed at the image description pages, seen by clicking on the images. See Radlines:Authorship for details.

References

  1. Hoeffel, Christine; Azizi, Louisa; Lewin, Maité; Laurent, Valérie; Aubé, Christophe; Arrivé, Lionel; Tubiana, Jean-Michel (2006). "Normal and Pathologic Features of the Postoperative Biliary Tract at 3D MR Cholangiopancreatography and MR Imaging ". RadioGraphics 26 (6): 1603–1620. doi:10.1148/rg.266055730. ISSN 0271-5333.