Among the more common issues is a crack or separation in the strain relief. This problem occurs most often where the probe attaches to the cable, but also can occur at the transducer connector. This problem is easy to spot, as shown in the picture on the right. This is one of the most important problems to address quickly because eventually it will affect your image. Ultimately you will damage the wires inside the cable and it will result in image dropout or complete loss of the ultrasound image.

Dropout is seen by black lines throughout your image. This “Dropout” is where one of the piezoelectric crystals is no longer sending or receiving signals, and there are many reasons why this may occur. Sometimes dropout is from a single element and you’ll see a very thin black line through your ultrasound image. Other times dropout happens in a large block of the image. This can occur anywhere along the array.

The membrane of a transducer can wear down for a number of reasons, the most common is extended use. For some manufacturers, this is a relatively simple fix. One single event typically does not cause holes or extreme wear, although we’re finding it to be somewhat common when needles are involved with the use of the probe. This repair often does not require replacement, but it’s common to see weak or dead elements with this problem, which is simply a result of extended use

Leakage often occurs with 3D/4D probes that have a soft shell, most commonly seen on the popular Voluson ultrasound machines. We can’t seem to find a typical situation that causes probe leakage. This can be diagnosed by turning the gain all the way up, hold the probe head facing down for 30 seconds, then turn it upright and look at the image on the ultrasound machine. The image will almost appear to show waves as the image begins to turn black as gravity takes effect on the oil inside the probe casing. This can often be fixed.

Mechanical problems occur in these transducers because they are required sweep back-and-forth in order to acquire slices for the volume image. Over time, the transducer mechanisms can fail after extended use. Before calling for repair, it can sometimes be resolved by reconnecting the transducer. These mechanical malfunctions may also be caused by a broken motor board within the ultrasound system.