Since the invention of the stethoscope in 1816 by French Physician René Laennec, the role of the stethoscope has evolved dramatically. Doctors now use a myriad of technologies such as CT scans and ultrasounds to diagnose heart and lung conditions. But does that doesn't mean that stethoscopes have become obsolete.

In modern medicine, stethoscopes remain an important screening tool. If doctors or nurses hear something odd while listening to your heart or lungs, they may follow up with a more sophisticated test to confirm the finding. For example, if a doctor hears a heart murmur in an older person who is having recurrent fainting episodes, they will order an echocardiogram to confirm whether that person has a common heart valve condition called Aortic Stenosis.

In resource constrained settings, basic tools such as the stethoscope can be incredibly useful to help screen for important medical conditions and also help make critical decisions (eg whether a person needs to be sent to a major hospital to drain fluid from around the lung).

In future, the role of the stethoscope will continue to evolve as techonology changes. Perhaps there may come a day where stethoscopes are no longer used routinely. However for the near future, doctors and nurses will continue to use stethoscopes in their work.

#stethoscopes #docunlock

Full transcript: https://www.docunlock.org/youtube/why...

References and Further reading:
Can the Stethoscope survive in the 21st Century?: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...
More on Rene Laennec: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Technology review of Digital Stethoscopes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

--

Video credits:

Certain illustrations adapted from https://www.svgrepo.com/ and https://www.freepik.com/ (Cornecoba / Photoroyalty / Vectorpouch / Freepik)

Music:
Motionarray (affiliate link): https://motionarray.com?ref=ankitgupta1
Say Good Night by Joakim Karud (  / joakimkarud  ) Music promoted by Audio Library    • Video  

Portrait of Rene: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
First X-ray: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Rene listening to patient: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Human Heart Beat:    • Human heartbeat (almost 70 bpm) - ext...  
Aortic Stenosis:    • Aortic Stenosis Murmur - With Murmur ...  
Echocardiogram:    • Understanding Echo: Standard Imaging ...  
CT Scan of the lung:    • very abnormal CXR followed with CT sc...  
Tesla Electric Car:    • Driven By Sustainability  
Blood Pressure Machine:    • How to Use Your Home Blood Pressure M...  

--

DocUnlock is a new YouTube channel with one purpose: to help people make better decisions about their own health, and the health of their families. SUBSCRIBE to our channel to stay in the loop!

Follow us:
  / docunlocked  
  / docunlocked  

Sign up to the DocUnlock Insider mailing list to receive updates direct to your inbox: https://www.docunlock.org/home/#docun...

Website: https://www.docunlock.org/

All DocUnlock content is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis and treatment.