SonoApp/News: “The window to the soul!” Intracranial Pressure by Ocular Ultrasound

One day, years ago, I went to my ophthalmologist who looked in my eye through their ‘whatchamacallit’-scope and then sat back in his chair and asked me (with a straight face): “Are you having any diarrhea?” Of course, this immediately confused me as I wondered whether my years of medical training lacked the concept that my eye could assess diarrhea. I answered with a chuckling, “no” and he concluded with, “ok, then Im sure it’s fine.” I decided to just forget that odd encounter until I started to perform ocular ultrasounds several years ago, excited about how I now dont have to rely on my horrible fundoscopic technique as it gives tons of information not only about the eye, but also the brain!

SonoApp: Ocular US – “Blinded by the light!” – Pupillary Constriction

THIS is truly my fav when it come to US applications. If you ever show this to any group of students or other learners, the entre room responds with , “Oooooooh, Awwwww.” You can see pupillary constriction by angling the probe upward to get a coronal view of the eye and shining a light on the eye – or the opposite eye. Or, you can decrease your depth and have the linear probe directly on the eyelid in transverse view while the patient looks upward. You will see the linear muscle layers which will constrict when a light is shined in the opposite eye (as seen below) … Pretty cool stuff, I tell ya….

Orbital US: EXTRA-ocular movements

“The Eye is the window to the soul”…. or something like that…. but I actually think that ultrasound comes pretty darn close to being that window – or at least being the key to the door. Orbital US is super cool. People talk about the orbital pathology that you can assess all the time, but what is also amazing is being able to assess normal anatomy and physiology of the eye – like extra-ocular movements (by using the linear high frequency probe and a tegaderm with gel over the orbit, have the patient move their eye left and right – along the plane of the probe – then rotate the probe 90 degrees and have them move their eye up and down).