The diagnostic limitations of ultrasonography in maxillofacial surgery.

The records of 63 patients having had ultrasound examinations with grey-scale B-mode scanners have been reviewed, to determine what contribution ultrasound made to the diagnosis of superficial maxillofacial masses, when compared with clinical examination and other methods of investigation. Most of the ultrasound parameters described in the literature are found in the cases we have examined. Despite the fact that the ultrasound image is often compatible with the disease, diagnosis using ultrasound was much less accurate than expected. From this series, it is concluded that ultrasound examination is not recommended for the diagnosis of all maxillofacial pathology, especially when the echographist has no special experience in this field of pathology, when ultrasound findings are not correlated with clinical ones, and when the ultrasound report is not precise and exhaustive.