Post Number 6: Ocular Ultrasounds (Eye Ultrasounds!)

Structures of the eye seen through an ocular ultrasound

            Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter.  This week, I want to talk about…wait for it…eye ultrasounds! So hang on, you can actually press an ultrasound probe against the eye and get an image? YES. YES YOU CAN. Don't worry, I understand your disbelief. I didn't believe it until I actually saw an ocular ultrasound procedure for myself. As I was watching the procedure, my reaction happened in two stages. 
           My first reaction was: 

           But after the initial shock, I began to fully appreciate the detailed image outlined on the monitor. My reaction then turned into:

            With that short description explaining my introduction to eye ultrasounds, let's get started.
            In the emergency room, ocular traumas are fairly common. It is very difficult to examine an eye after a trauma because the eye is too swollen to examine, or there are complications like lens opacification (lens appears cloudy) and hyphema (blood in the front of the eye between the cornea and the iris). However, ultrasounds have transformed the way eyes are examined during trauma. The use of ultrasounds on the eye has been fairly recent, the ability to scan the eye and its adjacent structures quickly and non-invasively makes this procedure revolutionary. Because the eyes are fluid filled, the eye presents a perfect acoustic window (most of the sound waves that leave the probe return after being reflected) and produce really detailed images. For this reason, ocular ultrasounds are really useful in diagnosing eye traumas.

            During an ocular ultrasound, the patient has to look straightforward and close their eyes. The physician then puts a large amount of the standard water-soluble gel over the eyelid. After the gel is applied, the physician applies a minimal amount of pressure with the probe and watches the 2D pictures of the patient’s eye appear on the monitor.

            There are two scans that can be done with an ocular ultrasound. The first one, the A-scan, is mainly used to measure the eye. The second scan, the B-scan shows the space behind the eye that normally can’t be seen. The B-scan is enormously helpful in diagnosing tumors, retinal detachments and other eye diseases.

            In this next part, I will show you a few ocular ultrasound examples.

     This is an example of an ocular ultrasound using the A-scan technique.

A detached retina seen from a B-scan.

A hyperechoic (an ultrasound term which means that echoes are stronger than normal) foreign object in the eye which is denoted

           That about concludes today's post! Thank you for reading and I hope you have an awesome week :)

 Resources: Adhikari, Srikar R. "Small Parts- Ocular Ultrasounds." Ocular Ultrasound. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. <http://www.sonoguide.com/smparts_ocular.html>.