The Mindray Ultrasound at Racquel Aesthetics has been an amazing tool and we continue to dive in deeper with all of its features to not only serve our patients for the safest and best injections, but also makes us better providers! Always be a student of your profession. Last week, we flew an amazing trainer to RA to further train us in advanced education with the Mindray Ultrasound.
I am excited to have Jasmine Henderson featured as our blog educator this week, Jasmine is definitely a student of the profession and is constantly learning! Take it away, Jasmine!
We are LOVING our Mindray ultrasound at RA, particularly to utilize this device to perform vascular mapping of our patients prior to injecting. Vascular Mapping is a process where we identify the location of high risk arteries. There are two high risk areas vascular mapping is best used for. Pyriform and Temples are high risk areas while injecting with a wide range of variation in location of arteries. Let’s talk about it!
Anatomy
The Angular Artery is a branch of the facial artery and located in the pyriform aperture space (a tiny triangle at each side of the nostril). Look at the following image from nih.gov showcasing the anatomical variations of the facial artery. Paying particular attention to the branches of the facial artery and how they differ in the pyriform aperture space. As you can see, the location can be different for every single patient. Locating the precise location of the angular artery lets us know as a provider the best placement for filler.
Similarly, the Temporal Artery also has variation and each patient has unique anatomy. The following image was obtained from researchgate.com showcasing the different variation in the temporal artery. Notice the branches and how the direction of branches are different. Not only are the direction of the branch important to identify but the DEPTH of where the artery is located. The depth of the artery is able to be identified with vascular mapping and helps us place your filler in the most appropriate layer of the temple space.
The research explained in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology explains it perfectly, “The anatomical layers with blood vessels varied among patients. The variability could give rise to complications. Possible anatomic variations at the temple should be carefully identified using pre-injection ultrasonography, and harming blood vessels should be avoided while injecting hyaluronic acid filler for temple augmentation.”
The layers of the skin are like a wafer cookie and each little layer of icing could be housing a dangerous artery waiting for a complication. Vascular Mapping with ultrasound prevents complications at RA and also gives both the injector and patient an extra layer of safety.
This tool is most likely used for patients with a history of a complication or when injecting into these high risk areas. There are other protocols we do like assessing the skin, aspirating EVERY time and getting a complete history prior to injection to keep you safe. This is truly just another tool in our tool box to keep you safe and give you the BEST results.
How Can We Help?
We hope we can make you feel comfortable during your injections as well as give you peace of mind by keeping safety at the forefront of our filler treatments. We can offer ultrasound imaging with any injectable appointment completely complimentary to you. If you have old filler that is not serving you anymore we are happy to take a look and see if it is something that could or should be dissolved. I do want to point out that not all old filler needs to be dissolved. Filler dissolval is $500 & up. Corrective work is a process. You must wait two weeks after dissolval before adding new filler. If you have questions or want my team of injectors and I to take a look please email our amazing coordinator Lea@RacquelAesthetics.com
