History of Ultrasound

The history of ultrasound has its inception surrounding the termination of World War II when a boom in global science yielded increased experimentation in the field of ultrasonics. Dr. Karl Theodore Dussik from Austria was the first to publish his work on the investigation of the brain through the use of transmission ultrasound. The 1960s saw advances in grayscale imaging from still images to moving images. It wasn't until the fusion of the recently invented doppler imaging with the rapidly upgrading ultrasound technology that duplex scanning was created, allowing for a more thorough understanding of the anatomy being viewed. Fast forward to the 200s and we now have advanced digital display, power doppler, and 3D-imaging.

Point-of-care usage of ultrasound in the emergency department (ED) was introduced several decades ago and has rapidly grown to include many indications. Emergency ultrasound is a desirable skill in the ED because it is portable, able to be brought to the bedside while patient care and monitoring continues, able to be repeated as a patient's status changes, causes no radiation exposure to the patient, can be executed rapidly, and is able to be packaged in such a manner where it can be utilized in many austere environments.

For a list of the current scope of emergency ultrasound, please refer to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Ultrasound Guidelines.