Intraoperative Ultrasound of the Liver: Actual Status and Indications

Abstract

Intraoperative liver ultrasound represents an essential component in the hepatobiliary surgery arsenal, having an essential role in describing liver lesions, their topography, and loco-regional extension. It also has an important role in establishing surgical strategy, in modulating the surgeon decisions, and thus in preventing postoperative complications. This chapter tries to make a synthetic review of principal indications for using ultrasound in liver surgical treatment, underlining the liver's lesions characteristics and advantages brought by this method. Also, we wanted to underline the importance that ultrasound has for guiding the surgeon in interventional intraoperative techniques or in any anatomical liver resection. The role of enhanced contrast intraoperative ultrasound is put in front by the better diagnostic results obtained for both primary and metastatic tumors of the liver.