When confronted in the emergency room with a patient who is suspected of having elevated intracranial pressure, a physician like Dr. Josyann Abisaab will likely reach for one of the most useful tools available to her, and that is the ultrasound machine. This amazing piece of modern hospital equipment is an excellent way to discover whether or not there is dangerous pressure building up inside the skull.
According to many emergency room physicians, the ultrasound is “a tremendous triage tool with high sensitivity to detect people who need more monitoring.”
The value of the ultrasound is highlighted even more when the emergency room is confronted with the ever-increasing problem of limited resources.
“Even at a Level I trauma center, when you have multiple patients waiting for a head CT, we need to know who we should be most concerned about and who needs to go to the operating room immediately. This helps us decide who needs to go first,” one emergency room specialist explained.