Ultrasonography in obstructive jaundice

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the validity of ultrasonography in patients who have obstructive jaundice. Descriptive study. The study was carried out from September 2006 to May 2008 in department of Radiology Combined Military Hospital Quetta. A total of 30 patients; 14 male and 16 female underwent operation for obstructive jaundice. All of them had preoperative ultrasonography. The site and nature of biliary obstruction were noted and the accuracy was determined with pre-operative findings/ histological diagnosis as gold standard. The cause of obstructive jaundice identified by ultrasonography with reasonable sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 90% for choledocholithiasis and sensitivity of 95.2% for pancreatic head tumors. Ultrasonography should be the first and best initial imaging procedure in patients who have obstructive jaundice and shows reasonable sensitivity and specificity to identify causes of obstruction jaundice