Journal of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine (Apr 2018)
The Effectiveness of Ultrasonography in Detecting Emergent Pediatric Pathologies and Requirement for Additional Imaging Techniques: A Retrospective Study
Abstract
Introduction: In emergency cases, ultrasonography is used in guiding resuscitation, to provide procedural guidance, and confirm a clinical diagnosis. In addition, it may prevent unnecessary exposure of the patient to ionizing radiation and risks caused by transporting the patient away from monitoring. This paper aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ultrasonography in detecting emergent pediatric pathologies in a state hospital radiology unit, and to identify whether additional imaging techniques, such as computed tomography, were required. Methods: This study was designed as a retrospective investigation. A group of 536 patients were randomly selected from 1.401 pediatric patients who underwent ultrasonography for non-traumatic emergent pathologies between 2015 and 2016. Results: Of the 536 patients, 46 were diagnosed with appendicitis, 14 with pathologies of the urinary system, 1 with ileus, 29 with mesenteric lymphadenitis, 4 with intussusception, 3 with ovarian cyst rupture, 1 with ovarian torsion, and 32 with scrotal pathologies. Computed tomography was performed for 20 patients. Ureteral calculi and appendicitis were confirmed by computed tomography in 5 and 14 patients, respectively, after being identified as secondary findings by ultrasonography. In 1 patient, ileus was verified by computed tomography. The sensitivity of ultrasonography was determined to be 85.7%. Only 14% of patients were not given definite pathological diagnoses by ultrasonography alone. Subsequent computed tomography for verifying secondary findings detected by ultrasonography was essential in only 20 patients. Conclusion: Our results promote the use of ultrasonography as the initial imaging test for evaluating pediatric patients with suspected emergency pathologies.
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