Once past the sound barrier of the skull, ultrasonic probing usually can locate and define dimensions of cerebral mass lesions, three West Coast investigators have concluded.
In reporting their intraoperative ultrasonic encephalography with 33 patients to the Federation of Western Societies of Neurological Science, they noted however that:
Risk and unpleasantness for the patient which have been associated with roentgenograms, angiography, pneumoencephalography and ventriculography, generally have not been associated with the ultrasound technique. But critics of the latter lesion localization technique have said that, used through the intact skull, it provided only a coarse screening method.
Peter Dyck, MD, resident in neurological surgery at Los Angeles County General Hospital who presented the California group's findings, said the technique was used with standard craniotomy.