BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to provide a thorough description of the variability in the obturator nerve branching pattern in the inguinal region. METHODS The anatomic variability of obturator nerve branching among 84 dissected embalmed cadavers was investigated. Ultrasound examination of the inguinal region was undertaken in 20 cases and the location of the obturator ne...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Successful blockade of the saphenous nerve using surface landmarks can be challenging. We evaluated the anatomic basis of performing a saphenous nerve block with ultrasound (US) using its relationship to the saphenous branch of descending genicular artery, sartorius muscle, and the adductor hiatus as defined by cadaveric measurements. METHODS Using a total of 9 cadav...

Inferior thoracic aperture (ITA) is a 3D closed contour near the periphery of the diaphragm and the accurate detection of ITA from CT images has many important applications. However, it is very difficult to identify certain parts of the ITA from CT images due to the properties of adjacent anatomic structures and image noise. In this paper, we develop a new method to detect the full ITA contour ...

The role of ultrasound in central neuraxial blockade has been underappreciated, partly because of the relative efficacy of the landmark-guided technique and partly because of the perceived difficulty in imaging through the narrow acoustic windows produced by the bony framework of the spine. However, this also is the basis for the utility of ultrasound: an interlaminar window that permits passag...

The determination of the spatial positions, with respect to a head holder reference, of anatomic structures within the brains of experimental animals, based on measurements of coordinates of ventricular and internal cranial landmarks, is described. If “appropriate” landmark arrays are employed, the uncertainty in coordinate values for prechosen anatomic sites in cat brain, determined by the met...

Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) serves as an adjunct to fluoroscopy for electrophysiological procedures by identifying critical anatomic landmarks and confirming catheter-endocardial contact. In the present study, we investigated the usefulness of ICE for radiofrequency catheter ablation. ICE was utilized to guide transseptal puncture in 19 patients undergoing radiofrequency catheter ablati...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The cisternal segments of the lower cranial nerves (CNs) adjacent to the jugular foramen (JF) are difficult to identify reliably by routine MR imaging. We performed a 3D balanced fast-field echo imaging technique (3D-bFFE) to obtain detailed anatomy of the cisternal segments of CNs IX, X, and XI. MATERIALS AND METHODS 3D-bFFE was used to image the cisternal segments of ...