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Using Vascular Maps to Navigate the Abdomen
C h a p t e r
6 3
Using Vascular Maps to Navigate the Abdomen
Spaulding produced a prodigious paper on the sonographic navigation of the interior abdomen using the vascular system.1 With the thoroughness of a textbook chapter, the author illustrates (literally and figuratively) how to use the abdominal vasculature to locate hard-to-find organs such as the abdominal esophagus, pancreas, adrenal glands, and mesenteric lymph nodes. Like many good ideas, the concept behind this work is deceptively simple: Abdominal blood vessels can be used to locate nearby organs. Most of us are inclined to do it the other way around, that is, find the organ and
574
then the adjacent vessel. My point is that, by learning Spaulding’s vascular navigational method, which is clearly more difficult than a traditional organ-based approach, one can develop an integrated style that is more versatile than either of the other techniques used alone.
Reference 1. Spaulding KA: A review of sonographic identification of abdominal blood vessels and juxtavascular organs. Vet Radiol Ultrasound 38:4, 1997.
6 3
Using Vascular Maps to Navigate the Abdomen
Spaulding produced a prodigious paper on the sonographic navigation of the interior abdomen using the vascular system.1 With the thoroughness of a textbook chapter, the author illustrates (literally and figuratively) how to use the abdominal vasculature to locate hard-to-find organs such as the abdominal esophagus, pancreas, adrenal glands, and mesenteric lymph nodes. Like many good ideas, the concept behind this work is deceptively simple: Abdominal blood vessels can be used to locate nearby organs. Most of us are inclined to do it the other way around, that is, find the organ and
574
then the adjacent vessel. My point is that, by learning Spaulding’s vascular navigational method, which is clearly more difficult than a traditional organ-based approach, one can develop an integrated style that is more versatile than either of the other techniques used alone.
Reference 1. Spaulding KA: A review of sonographic identification of abdominal blood vessels and juxtavascular organs. Vet Radiol Ultrasound 38:4, 1997.