Introduction: Pelvic ultrasounds are commonly performed for various clinical indications in female patients presenting to the hospital. A survey of the kidneys is routinely included as part of the examination, but there is limited justification for their inclusion in the assessment of every female presenting for a pelvic ultrasound.
Method: We examined the utility of surveying the kidney ultrasound during pelvic ultrasonography by reviewing the records of 1009 pelvic ultrasound examinations in 1000 women.
Results: In total, 46 incidental findings were identified, but 91% of these were clinically inconsequential. Only four patients had incidental findings of high clinical priority requiring specialist treatment. Of these, two patients were symptomatic and had urinary tract obstruction due to stones. The other two patients harboured asymptomatic renal cell carcinomas. The overall incidence of renal incidental findings of high clinical priority in asymptomatic patients was two in 1009 examinations (1999 kidneys).
Conclusion: Indiscriminate uncritical screening of the kidneys in women presenting for pelvic ultrasound is not evidence-based and represents a low-yield examination with extremely low rate of incidental findings of clinical significance.
Keywords: incidentaloma; kidney ultrasound; pelvic sonography; pelvic ultrasound examination; renal survey.
© 2019 Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine.