patients who present to the ER with flank pain sometimes have multiple different diagnoses that can be readily assessed with ultrasound the first one on everyone's mind is an abdominal aortic aneurysm to scan for that I'm using the abdominal preset here and pushing through the bowel gas to find the vertebral Shadow once I identify the pulsatile abdominal aorta I'll follow it down to its iliac bifurcation usually near the umbilicus another common cause of flank pain to assess is the kidneys here I'll come to the right flank and I'm looking for any signs of moderate to severe hydrosis that might be identified if it's the Left Flank that's the issue I'll swing and start there once I've assessed the aorta and both kidneys I've had a chance to assess multiple possible causes of this patient's flank pain to help guide my next steps in management
