Scratch auscultation

The scratch auscultation is an examination technique in medicine . During the physical examination, it supplements touching ( palpation ) and listening ( auscultation ).

Use to delimit organs with different sound conduction behavior and to determine organ sizes if no examination results can be obtained with palpation due to obesity .

A stethoscope is placed on the surface of the body over an organ such as the liver . Then the finger or fingernail is used to carefully scratch the skin over the suspected organ borders. Conclusions about the position and size of the organ can be drawn from the change in the sound heard with the stethoscope.

Scratch auscultation is particularly suitable for determining the size of the liver , spleen , filling of the urinary bladder or tumors in the abdominal cavity, and also for proving the size of the heart .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scratch auscultation at doccheck.com, accessed on May 10, 2016.
2. ↑ Script for the integrated examination course at uni-marburg.de, accessed on May 10, 2016.

This article is about a health issue. It is not used for self-diagnosis and does not replace a diagnosis by a doctor. Please note the information on health issues !