[Ultrasound as a diagnostic aid in maxillofacial surgery]

Ultrasonography is a relatively new diagnostic aid in maxillofacial surgery. It can be used in maxillofacial surgery in three modifications: Doppler sonography, A-scan sonography, B-scan sonography. As clinicians we wanted to determine what contribution ultrasound examination has made to the diagnosis of superficial maxillofacial masses, when compared with clinical examination, intraoperative findings and with other methods of investigations. Since 1985 B-scan sonography has been performed in the examination of congenital, inflammatory and neoplastic masses of the head and neck on more than 1500 patients. The ultrasound examination was performed in the Department of Radiology by radiologists. The value of the ultrasound findings varied depending on the soft tissue lesions which were examined and the experience of the radiologists who performed the examination. The advantages of the diagnostic ultrasound are in being noninvasive, without any known deleterious biological effect, rapid, painless, inexpensive and easily reproducible. Ultrasonography is a procedure which nowadays is routinely performed in our department for the preoperative evaluation of our cancer patients and postoperative follow-up as well as for the patients with inflammations, diseases of the salivary glands and soft tissue swellings.