Tips for Finding Small Organs Via Ultrasound

Having trouble locating a small organ on your patient during an ultrasound? Mark Howes, DVM, DACVR, radiologist at the Veterinary Specialty Center in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, says it's all about remembering anatomy basics.

“I think the biggest tip to try to capture hard to find organs— whether it's the head of the spleen, or even a smaller organ like the pancreas— is realizing where they should live in the abdomen, and also remembering that the anatomy is very similar for everybody. And understanding to get to a challenging organ, such as the pancreas, finding the small vessels that run through the pancreas. And if you're trying to find a small organ like the adrenal gland, on either side there's very large vessels right next to it. So, it makes it easy to find the hard or small organs if you can remember where that anatomy is. It all goes back to anatomy.”