Clarius recently introduced the L20 HD, the world’s first ultra high frequency handheld ultrasound scanner designed for micro plastic surgeries, pediatrics and rheumatology.  Until now, only high-end ultrasound systems offered this capability, but at 5 to 10 times the price of the Clarius wireless device. No other handheld ultrasound scanner is capable of premium quality scanning at such shallow depths. 

A surgeon practicing at the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Dr. Kenneth Fan was one of the first to test the new Clarius L20 HD super high frequency ultrasound scanner. 

“We’ve compared your device to the cart systems we have in our hospital and in terms of fidelity and portability, the Clarius is far beyond. Your team should be congratulated for an excellent product,” says Dr. Fan.

Dr. Fan spoke to us about his experience using handheld ultrasound for three types of procedures.

1. Free Flap Microsurgeries Guided by Ultrasound with the Clarius L20 HD

“I’m a micro surgeon at Georgetown. I’m in my second year of practice and I perform a lot of free flaps, probably about 70 to 90 a year. There’s a great need for ultrasound, particularly in our patient population. The biggest reason is because the flaps are a lot thicker and we would like to find some modality where we can identify the perforators and trace them. For free flaps, we identify vessels that are anywhere from one millimeter to three millimeters in size.”

“Clarius is most useful with flaps that we are unfamiliar with in difficult regions in the body. We recently used the Clarius L20 HD on a patient who we weren’t sure had superior gluteal artery perforators (SGAP), because the patient had previous surgery in that region. With Clarius, we were able to find and verify the vessels were there! If we hadn’t been able to do that, we would not have been confident to target that region.”

2. Breast Surgery Patient Care with Real-Time Ultrasound in Any Setting

“Ultrasound is the new arena for plastic surgery,” says Dr. Fan, explaining how Clarius helps to expedite post-surgery patient care. “Before we had access to this handheld ultrasound, we had to send patients to breast imaging, which requires pre-authorization, and then they would have to come back the next day for the seroma drain.”

“Imagine the number of implants that we do. It means that in every clinic, we may find one or two patients on any given day who needs treatment. Before, we had to send them away. Having access to a handheld device means we can take it to the clinic, to the floor, to the OR. It’s an absolute game-changer.”

3. Ultrasound-Guided Block Injections for Nerve Surgery

“My partner uses a different handheld ultrasound device to do blocks for nerve surgery,” notes Dr. Fan, who shared his Clarius L20 for comparison. Dr. Fan’s colleague was impressed, noting the advantages of the Clarius wireless scanner. “He likes the Clarius ultrasound much better because it’s designed for superficial soft tissue and also useful for drainage of seromas.”

With ultra-high definition imaging to guide procedures in micro surgery, facial plastic surgery and dermal fillers, the Clarius L20 HD is available to purchase online now in the United States (USD$6,900), United Kingdom (£5,750) and European Union (€6,250) and Canada (CAD$8,975). For deeper imaging in other surgical procedures, you can learn more about our line of scanners for your plastic surgery practice here.

[Disclosures: Dr. Fan is not a consultant and did not receive honoraria from Clarius. He has no relevant disclosures to provide.]