A bump: what to do next? Ultrasound imaging of superficial soft-tissue palpable lesions.

Catalano O, Varelli C, Carlo Varelli, Sbordone C, Carolina Sbordone, Corvino A, Antonio Corvino, De Rosa D, Dario De Rosa, Vallone G, Gianfranco Vallone, Wortsman X, Ximena Wortsman
Journal of ultrasound · 2020 · doi:10.1007/s40477-019-00415-z · PMID:31786796 · PMC7441113
OA: closed
📄 Open PDF View on PubMed View at publisher

Abstract

Soft-tissue palpable lesions are common in clinical practice, and ultrasound (US) represents the first imaging option in the evaluation of a patient with a soft-tissue swelling. A full and systematic US assessment is necessary, however. This includes grayscale, color- and power-Doppler, spectral-Doppler, and possibly elastography facilities, as well as a trained operator. Several lesions showing characteristic US features can be diagnosed confidently, without any further work-up, and the high spatial resolution of ultrasound in the superficial layers can be a powerful tool to discriminate their etiologies. Second-level options, to be reserved for indeterminate cases or those suspected malignant at initial ultrasound, include magnetic resonance imaging, percutaneous fine-needle aspiration or biopsy, and surgical-excision biopsy. In this article, we discuss the proper US approach for addressing superficial soft-tissue lesions.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Citation neighborhood (sparse)

Too few in-corpus citations on either side for a chart; here are the lists.

Cites (1)

References (68)

Source provenance

crossref
last seen: 2026-08-23T06:29:40.986320+00:00
europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-30T09:23:35.175841+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-09-02T07:26:43.000666+00:00