Diagnostic potential of ultrasound elastography in patients with surgical diseases and injuries: Systematic review

In recent years, ultrasound elastography has been introduced into clinical practice. Because of the low availability of this equipment and the short period of operation, professionals are unaware of the technologys potential. Based on the findings of a systematic review of published scientific studies, this study aims to determine the diagnostic use of ultrasound elastography in patients with surgical diseases and injuries. PubMed, Google Scholar, eLibrary, and other information databases were searched for publications in Pediatric Surgery, Russian Bulletin of Pediatric Surgery, Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Pediatric Surgery, and SonoAce Ultrasound from 2016 to 2022. The total number of sources in the sample is 7,040. The analysis comprised 32 papers that met the PRISMA criteria. The findings are divided into surgical diseases and injuries. The works on space-occupying formations predominated among the surgical diseases (27 publications). A single study was related to vascular problems and ectopic pregnancy, and three articles corresponded to the criteria of injury. The methods specificity was confirmed in the interquartile interval [Q1 77 Q3 95], Me 88.1, with sensitivity in the interval [Q1 81 Q3 94], Me 85.5. The advantages of elastography have been established in terms of the specificity of the method in identifying predictors of rotator cuff rupture, amounting to 96.7% and 61.2%62.5%, respectively, when compared with the B-mode. In pancreatic cysts, elastography had a specificity of 75.0% but only 40.0% in B-mode. The advantage of elastography (84.0%) over grayscale studies (69.0%) in metastatic lymph node lesions was established. Elastography is 15% more effective than standard ultrasonography in treating supraspinatus tendon injury. Elastography raised the specificity of prostate cancer diagnosis from 45.0% to 89.0%.