NEWS

New Portable Ultrasound in SMGH Emergency Room

Donations to SMGH Foundation have helped to purchase the latest technology for patients who must make an unexpected urgent visit to Strathroy Hospital's Emergency Room for medical care.

Successful fundraising efforts have resulted in the purchase of a new portable ultrasound machine that helps emergency physicians to perform exams with speed and accuracy.

(Right) Dr. Ganesh Ram, Emergency Room Physician at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital.

(Left) The new Sonosite M-Turbo, portable ultrasound machine in the Emergency Department at Strathroy Hospital. The ultrasound unit is used by emergency room physicians examining patients who undergo F.A.S.T scans (Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma), a limited but rapid version of ultrasound that can help diagnose abdominal injury.

F.A.S.T. is noninvasive and accurate, and it provides some important advantages in a life-and-death trauma situation. The exam is quicker to perform (it can be accomplished in as little as three minutes), and is easier to interpret. The equipment is portable.

An emergency physician can now view images of a beating heart, developing fetus, or suspected internal bleeding in a trauma situation. The ultrasound machine provides abdominal to vascular images, and can be of great help during cardiac exams.

As ultrasound machines have become more compact and their image quality more precise, the use of portable ultrasound machines in hospital emergency rooms has become a great asset to doctors.

The new ultrasound can be rolled right up to a patient's bed in an emergency room and produces real-time images of internal organs and abdominal tissue by interpreting sound waves bounced off solid internal objects. These images often provide information that's valuable in diagnosing and treating a variety of diseases and conditions.

"Having the new portable ultrasound system has made a really big difference," says Dr. Ganesh Ram, Emergency Room Physician at SMGH.

"In the emergency department it all comes down to how fast you can diagnose and begin treatment, we can now quickly use an ultrasound to determine emergency medical care needed."

The new emergency room ultrasound machine does not replace the existing stationary ultrasound unit currently used in Diagnostic Imaging (D.I.) at SMGH. The unit in D.I. is still needed for non-emergency ultrasound images.

The new portable ultrasound machine is dedicated specifically for the emergency department, ready for physicians to help diagnose the best treatment and care for patients in urgent situations.