Ultrasound: Powerful, Dynamic and Affordable
Triceps ruptures are relatively rare. A good physical exam may suggest the presence of a ruptured triceps. MRI and ultrasound can both confirm the diagnosis. However, ultrasound offers many important advantages.
Strengths of Ultrasound in Orthopedics
Ultrasound has been used in medicine for decades. Orthopedic Surgeons are now using ultrasound to help make diagnoses that might otherwise require an expensive MRI. In many cases, a diagnostic ultrasound can give you information that is difficult, if not impossible to get from other studies such as MRI. Advantages of using ultrasound are many:- Ultrasound can be done very quickly in the office. There is no need to schedule the study at a later date, because it can be done in the doctor's office.
- Ultrasound is typically much less costly than MRI.
- The ultrasound probe can be used to help find the painful region on a patient with an acute injury.
- Claustrophobic patients can tolerate ultrasound much better than MRI.
- With ultrasound, the surgeon can view live, moving images of the patient's anatomy. This is difficult, if not impossible to do with MRI. Having this "dynamic" information can significantly facilitate planning surgery.
- As shown in the example below, it is very easy to quickly scan the "normal" side to compare to the injured side.
Case Example of Ultrasound Used to Diagnose a Triceps Rupture
A 52 year old man fell while working, landing on his left arm. He went to a local emergency room where x-ray films revealed a small fleck of "avulsed" bone near the elbow. A CT scan was done, but showed nothing more than what the xrays showed. The patient was referred to Dr. Jason Browdy, who suspected a possible triceps tendon rupture based on the patient's history and physical exam findings.Complete triceps ruptures can lead to significant loss of strength of the arm, and operative repair of the tendon maximizes the patient's potential for regaining normal function. Dr. Browdy then performed a diagnostic ultrasound to verify the diagnosis. With the ultrasound findings, Dr. Browdy was able to confirm the diagnosis and plan surgery.
CLICK HERE TO SEE EXAMPLE ULTRASOUND IMAGES USED TO DIAGNOSE THIS TRICEPS RUPTURE.
