Musculoskeletal Ultrasound
Musculoskeletal ultrasound is a 100% safe, non-invasive method of body imaging that has completely revolutionized pain care. It allows practices like mine to deliver more effective pain care, with quicker recovery times, and less need for painkillers. It eliminates treatment mistakes and post-treatment complications.
How Does Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Work?
Musculoskeletal ultrasound uses ultrasound technology similar to that used on a pregnant woman to see into the uteris during pregnancy. In the case of an elbow injury, a musculoskeletal ultrasound may be applied to the surface of the elbow so that the physician may see inside the arm and locate the exact source of the pain.
The ability to get an internal visual of the body in real time is a revolutionary improvement over the X-ray, which required images to be shot onto a film. With musculoskeletal ultrasound, a doctor can bend the patient’s arm and view what is happening internally as he/she is doing so. Previously, with x-ray, the physician would only be able to review a still image, which offered substantially less insight for treatment. Moreso, ultrasound is a much gentler waveform than x-ray, which is why its safe for all body parts, even pregnant womens’ bellies.
Physicians can use musculoskeletal ultrasound to diagnose disorders in tendons, ligaments and joints.
How Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Revolutionized Pain Treatment
Besides making diagnosis substantially easier and more accurate, musculoskeletal ultrasound has also revolutionized treatment itself.
Before musculoskeletal ultrasound, when a physician needed to do a joint injection, he/she would have to take an educated guess as to where the injection should go. Through training, most physicians can do this fairly accurately, but there was always a risk of human error. This caused a variety of problems such as unnecessary damage to the tissue around the area being treated, treatments that missed the affected area, and various post-treatment complications.
With musculoskeletal ultrasound, if a physician needs to deliver an injection, he/she can see a clear picture of where the injection is being directed within the body. As a result, the physician is able to treat the affected area with pinpoint accuracy and avoid any mistakes. This achieves faster pain relief, quicker recovery, and no unnecessary complications.
Why Don’t All Pain Management Physicians Use Musculoskeletal Ultrasound?
Unfortunately, musculoskeletal ultrasound is a very complex and costly technology that is simply not affordable to many practices in the US today.
Dr. T. Gurevich is a proud pioneering user of this technology in the Midwest.
When she started using musculoskeletal ultrasound in her clinics, she believed it would improve the effectiveness of her treatments, but even she was surprised at the results. For the first time, patients began declining pain medication! Since then, she has been able to deliver an unrivaled level of pain care for thousands of patients like you.
