Bulletin Homeopathy Jan - April 2001

Faculty of Homeopathy Malaysia, Pasir Mas

How Safe Is Ultrasound

    Ultrasound scanning during pregnancy may pose risks to both mother and child. This was the finding of numberous studies published in several scientific journal in recent years.

Some of the health risks are:

• premature labour or birth
• Miscarriage
• Perinatal death ( death of babies after 28th week of pregnancy and after the first week of life)
• spontaneous abortion
• Damage to cell's DNA
• Intestinal bleeding
• Long term brain damage
• Delayed speech
• Left handedness
• More passive behavior (including social withdrawal) in babies
• Difficulty in reading or learning to speak

    Maternity health expert overseas are also warning that early scans and routine use in normal pregnancies are not beneficial. Its widespread use today has been attributed to rampant commercialism.

Just how sound is ultrasound ?

• " Ironic as it may sound, the more powerful ultrasound becomes, the less accurate it appear to be. The largest study ever into the ability of ultrasound to pick up abnormalities found that scans were wrong in one-third of cases,"  Reported by Lancet 1998.

• It is also showed that, in 1 out 100 cases, ultrasound failed to detect significant handicaps for which mothers should be offered a termination," says the 1994 report, published in the British Journal of Obstrics and Gynaecology.

         Ultrasound Malpractice Lawsuit

        In 1992, the family of a severely brain-damaged, paralysed and tube-fed 3 year old boy filed a mal practice suit against an obstetrician in the US. The doctor had performed an ultrasound in the 17th week of pregnancy and had seen only 1 foetus - in actual fact, there were 2. Because of the inaccurate diagnosis, an indentical twin was later delivered by emergency Caesarean section - limp and not breathing.

        The baby survived, but is now damaged for life. The suit was settled in October 1994 for more tha US 500,000

2 scans " confirmed' clubfoot, but feet turned out normal.

Reported in the New York Times 1996

   It was 20 weeks pregnant with first child and had just had a routine ultrasound examination. I had already had aminocentesis several weeks earlier, to check for chromosomal abnormalities.

   I knew my baby was healthy and magnificent and I had gone into the ultrasound expecting added proof of her splendor.

   The obstetrician began discussing the scan results. And the doctor came to the problem. The left foot was in a funny position in the uterus. She said the sonographer had not been able to see the profile of the foot, no matter what angle she came at it from, and that is what happens when you have a clubfoot.

   My husband and I looked at each other in dumb, grim shock. Clubfoot ? neither of us was sure what a clubfoot was, what it looked like or how bad a defect it was.

   Leaving the obstetrician's office, my husband and I headed for a medical library to de research on clubfoot.

   The pictures in textbooks were devastating. Some of the feet were extremely deformed, bent in and up at the angkle to form the letter J. Toe and heeels were bunched and twisted. The feet were often stunted, and the calves of the clubfoot leg were comparatively underdeveloped.

   That night, my husband and I di not sleep at all. We wept and wept.

   The next day, a doctor at a nearby hospital concurred with preliminary diagnosis of clubfoot, subtle through evidence was " Good catch" he said admiringly of the previous sonographer's work.

   In the car ride home, I howled so hard I thought the sky would crack.

   Later, we had yet another ultrasound, performed by doctors with extensive expertise in ultrasound diagnosis - the clubfoot they were certain. " There is a deformity of the left foot," they said bluntly.

   I became obsessed with clubfoot.

   In late August, I gave birth to a healthy daughter with a lusty set of lungs, a full head of black hair and no clubfoot at all." - New York Times 1996.

• Reprint from Akhbar Utusan Konsumer December 2000 Page 3.  These report are based on evidence culled from various working papers and reports on ultrasound and related issues, including Lancet, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ultrasound Med Biol, Midwifery Today, Candian Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, etc.