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Endoanal Ultrasound

  • Chapter
Imaging Pelvic Floor Disorders

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Diagn Imaging))

Abstract

Sonographic imaging of the anal sphincters poses several technical problems. The tissue layers are thin, and the acoustic impedance differences often minimal, requiring high anatomical resolution and good soft tissue differentiation to resolve. There is also the question of the anatomical plane the sphincters are examined in. As the sphincters are circular structures, ideally this would be axially through the sphincters. It is possible to obtain an angled axial image of the sphincters in women using a standard end-firing transducer placed on the perineum, but in men only imaging along the longitudinal axis of the sphincter is possible with a probe over the anus. Endoprobes have the advantage of imaging in the ideal anatomical plane, even although this will disturb the normal anatomy of the closed anus. Endoprobes for endoanal ultrasound need to be designed for axial imaging with high resolution, and currently only a few manufacturers have developed endoprobes for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St Mark’s Hospital, Princess Grace Hospital, Nottingham Place, London, W1U 5NY, UK

    Clive I. Bartram FRCS, FRCP, FRCR (Professor, Consultant Radiologist (Retired)

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  1. Clive I. Bartram FRCS, FRCP, FRCR
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bartram, C.I. (2008). Endoanal Ultrasound. In: Imaging Pelvic Floor Disorders. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71968-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71968-7_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-71966-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-71968-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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