Quick Concepts: Transducer Notch and Image Orientation

Our subject discussion today is basic, but at the same time critical to performing ultrasound studies. Interpreting orientation is no doubt, second-nature to many experienced medical professionals; however, it is important to recall that simple errors in ultrasound studies can lead to errors in diagnostic differentiation and/or medical intervention.  This reminder can be viewed as cautionary or complimentary…What we do MATTERS. 

A month never passes without the appearance of a news article (usually in ‘Health’ or “Oddly Enough”) detailing a botched operation or procedure involving a mistake in orientation.  Anecdotally, some patients are so concerned about this potential error that they resort to marking their bodies in advance of a procedure with descriptive wording like “Right Leg”, “Wrong Arm”, or “Start Here”.

While such incidents are extremely rare, the underlying cause is most often a breakdown in scanning procedural protocols, either on an X-ray, MRI, CT or ultrasound studies.  So especially to those among you entrusted with mentoring young scanning professionals, please keep in mind that what “everybody knows” is frequently not known by everybody.

Frank Miele, MSEE  President, Pegasus Lectures, Inc., graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with a triple major in physics, mathematics, and engineering. While at Dartmouth, he was a Proctor Scholar and received citations for academic excellence in comparative literature, atomic physics and quantum mechanics, and real analysis.