Contrast-enhanced ultrasound in the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative assessment of liver lesions

The use of contrast agents (CA) with liver ultrasound (US) has gained recently an established role for the diagnosis of various hepatic diseases due to their safety, high versatility and low costs (contrast-enhanced ultrasound: CEUS). The purpose of this review is to provide a state-of-the-art summary of the available evidence for their use in the characterization of focal liver lesions. A published work search was conducted for all preclinical and clinical studies involving CA on hepatic US imaging. CEUS increases the sensitivity for lesion detection and the specificity to differentiate between benign and malignant diseases due to the enhanced visualization of the tumor microcirculation. Results achieved seem at least equivalent to those of spiral computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. The association of CA with intraoperative ultrasound has changed the surgical approach in 25% of patients and guarantees complete ablations by a single session in most of them. CEUS provides detailed information about tumor vasculature, improves the preoperative characterization and therefore the therapeutic strategy, and can evaluate the intraoperative completeness of the ablation.