Ultrasound of the gall bladder: experience in a district hospital.

Abstract

In a retrospective survey performed to assess the reliability of ultrasound of the gall bladder in a district hospital the radiologists performing the examinations had little or no previous experience in non-obstetric ultrasound. In 142 patients who had the presence or absence of gall stones proved by surgery gall stones had been correctly predicted in 84% of patients with stones and absent in 64% of those without. This compares favourably with earlier reports from North America, and shows that ultrasound of the gall bladder is useful, even when staff experience is limited.

Review of general surgery 1980

“…In only 6 patients was the scanning inconclusive. Most of these excellent reports come from teaching hospitals, but Walker (1980) presents the results of the first year of use of a B-mode scanner in a district general hospital (the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading). Three hundred and sixty-seven cases were scanned, mostly after unsuccessful or equivocal oral cholecystograms, and operative confirmation was carried out in over onethird of the cases.…”