Ultrasound Unit

The O&G ultrasound unit functions as an outpatient clinic of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Tygerberg Hospital, the academic hospital affiliated to the University of Stellenbosch.

The unit is open during normal office hours and delivers an ultrasound service by specialized sonographers and medical professionals, on an appointment basis.

Our service focuses on the following:

  • Making high quality ultrasound assessment widely available to all pregnant women in our area. To achieve this we do not only provide a scanning service for referred or high risk women in the unit but we also contribute to policy development and support to ultrasound services in the health care facilities in the entire drainage area.
  • Providing a high quality expert fetal medicine service for complicated pregnancies referred to us from surrounding hospitals and private practices, sometimes even from other provinces. This includes multidisciplinary counseling and support for parents expecting a fetus with prenatally diagnosed abnormalities as well as subspecialist management of complicated twin pregnancies, pregnancies with severe placental insufficiency or red cell iso-immunisation etc.
  • Providing genetic counseling and highly effective genetic screening as well as a spectrum of diagnostic invasive procedures to women at high risk of fetal abnormality in dedicated multidisciplinary clinics on Mondays and Tuesdays.
  • Providing ultrasound guided fetal therapy, including in utero transfusions and drainage procedures.
  • Providing high quality ultrasound assessment of women with gynaecological problems.
  • Providing dedicated in-service training in O&G ultrasound skills to registrars, medical officers and sonographers in the public sector, as well as ultrasound courses to practitioners from the private sector. For further information on our ultrasound courses, please contact Stellmed Tel: 021 938 9183.
     

Our unit is characterized by a professional and efficient service in a friendly, caring and sensitive atmosphere. 

Services

We perform approximately 1200 scans per month in the unit, of which about 60% are obstetric scans. In addition, approximately 400 patients receive their routine obstetric ultrasound examinations by sonography students of our team in a community-based ultrasound facility, approximately 5 miles from the hospital (Bishop Lavis Obstetric Unit).

We offer the following services:

  • Early pregnancy assessment
  • Routine 11-14 weeks scan for dating, fetal detail and nuchal translucency screening
  • Routine 18-23 weeks scan for dating and fetal detail
  • Selective scanning for predefined obstetric and gynaecologic indications
  • Genetic counseling for parents at high risk of aneuploidy or genetic syndromes, as well as parents of fetuses with ultrasonographically detected anomalies
  • Multidisciplinary approach to fetuses with diagnosed anomalies
  • Targeted assessment of women with gynaecological problems
  • A variety of in utero procedures incl. amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, cordocentesis, laserablation of placental vessels, in utero transfusions intraperitoneal as well as intravascular, sonohysterography.

Our members of staff are:

Prof Lut Geerts - Head, Principal Specialist O&G

Dr Shannon Morris - sessions, Medical Officer O&G

Training

The unit is manned by experienced personnel on a full-time basis and trainees are always supervised. The unit is an affiliated training centre for the Jefferson Institute (USA) and accredited by the Fetal Medicine Foundation (UK) for first trimester screening.

We train:

  • ​Registrar O&G (2 rotations of 6 weeks each)

  • Registrar Radiology (single rotation of 2 months)

We offer courses in basic obstetric scanning for medical practitioners from private practice or secondary hospitals several times a year. The course consists of a structured theoretical course with written hand-out notes and intensive hands-on training. The training can be complemented on a voluntary basis by home-based practice with logbook assessment, structured feedback and periodical practical review.

In addition, we offer several short, more advanced courses in ultrasound nationally, including first trimester scanning, fetal echocardiology and update in fetal medicine.

 

Research

In order to optimize care for women in our area, our research is focused on common obstetric and gynaecological conditions for which ultrasound assessment may improve management.

Focus areas of our research:

  • The impact of a routine obstetric ultrasound service in the community.

  • Cervical changes in pregnancy and their prediction of preterm labour in low risk, high risk and symptomatic patients.

  • Prediction of fetal distress in women with severe preeclamspia remote form term.

  • Predicting mode of delivery in postterm pregnancies.

  • Predicting mode of delivery after induction of labour.

  • Establishing local reference values for fetal biometry and uterine artery bloodflow.

  • Establishing the place and circumstances around pregnancy diagnosis in our local population.

  • Nasal bone visualisation: impact of ethnicity and image quality.

  • Uterine and fetoplacental Dopplers at 24 weeks in high risk women: predicting recurrence of poor placentation complications.

  • Endometrial abnormalities on progestagen-only injectables.

  • Completeness of removal of products of conception after manual vacuum aspiration.