[Current technical possibilities of 3D ultrasound in gynecology and obstetrics]

3D sonography offers the possibility of storing complete 3-dimensional volumes, not only individual image planes as was the case with 2D sonography. Once the scan is completed, all the sectional planes within the volume can be accessed from the memory, processed, and displayed in the same way that three-dimensional surface-rendere or transparent views are computed and displayed. Update 3D technologies enable 3D real time observation of stored volumes, so that abnormal findings in both obstetrics and gynaecology can be directly observed three-dimensionally without having to wait for several minutes until the images have been computed.