Handheld Ultrasound Bladder Volume Assessment Compared to Standard Technique

Urinary retention is a common complaint encountered in the emergency department (ED). Current tools for the assessment of urinary retention are either bladder volume estimation with a bladder scanner performed by nursing staff or direct visualization and measurement via bedside ultrasound performed by an emergency physician. Newer handheld ultrasound devices such as the Butterfly iQ have been brought to the market to bring ultrasound more conveniently to the bedside. A recently released handheld auto-calculation tool produces a 3D image of the bladder and instant bladder volume measurement in milliliters. However, there is a paucity of data assessing the validity of the new Butterfly iQ at the bedside. This study sought to compare the diagnostic accuracy and rated user convenience of the nursing bladder scanner, the cart-based ultrasound machine, and the Butterfly iQ auto-bladder volume tool. ED patients were prospectively enrolled and underwent bladder measurements in a randomized, pre-determined order with each modality. Measurements were subsequently compared to the gold standard of catheterization. Cart-based ultrasound had the highest agreement to catheterization when compared to the RN scanner and the Butterfly iQ. However, the Butterfly iQ and RN scanner were both considered more convenient measurement modalities than the cart-based ultrasound. The Butterfly iQ serves as a cost-effective alternative to cart-based ultrasound while providing greater general utility compared to bladder scanners.