The Question Remains – Is Prenatal Ultrasound Risky?

Over the last 2 years I’ve been looking over resources to figure out if ultrasound exams are at all dangerous to a fetus (I’ll leave the figuring out of why I’m interested in this as an exercise to the reader). I’ve always read that there is no proven effects on fetal growth when exposed to ultrasound waves during standard prenatal screenings. Note that I said “no proven effects”? Basically there have been some studies that indicate there might be (for example it affects neuronal migration in rats), but no studies conclusively indicating that there is – so it is still unproven.

Well bless Wikipedia, I’ve finally found something that indicates that prenatal ultrasound exams have an effect on fetal brain development.

When ultrasonography was offered more widely (1976 to 1978), the risk of left-handedness was higher among those exposed to ultrasound compared with those unexposed (odds ratio = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.16 to 1.51). We conclude that ultrasound exposure in fetal life increases the risk of left-handedness in men, suggesting that prenatal ultrasound affects the fetal brain.

I don’t think this paper indicates that exposure has a positive or a negative effect (Alisa is left-handed after all and I could never call it a bad thing – not ever) but it does indicate that there is an affect of some sort.

I believe the benefits offered from standard ultrasound scans during pregnancy so far outweight the known risks.  However for those of you considering having ultrasound scans performed for non-diagnostic reasons (including pretty much all types of 3-D ultrasound scans) I’d caution you to consider the real value and potential ramifications of unnecessary ultrasound exposure.