https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-72620-8

As the concept of precision medicine gains widespread recognition, diverse minimally invasive interventional techniques have flourished. Boasting outstanding ultrasound visualization performance, echogenic puncture needles have evolved from specialized auxiliary instruments into standard equipment across numerous clinical departments, with their application scope expanding continuously.

I. Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine: The Navigator for Nerve Block

The core of regional anesthesia and pain management lies in accurately injecting medications around target nerves. Conventional blind puncture relies on paresthesia feedback or nerve stimulators, featuring low success rates and high risks of nerve injury. The adoption of echogenic puncture needles has thoroughly transformed this scenario:

• Precise localization: Under direct ultrasound visualization, clinicians can clearly observe the relative position between the needle tip and target nerves, evade blood vessels and vital anatomical structures, and deliver medication precisely to the target site.
• Reduced complications: Real-time monitoring of drug injection and diffusion of local anesthetics effectively prevents intravascular or intrathecal accidental administration.
• Improved operational efficiency: It shortens the time spent locating target nerves, raises the success rate of single-shot nerve block, and optimizes surgical turnover workflows.

II. Interventional Ultrasound and Oncology: Elite Instrument for Biopsy and Ablation

This represents one of the most established application fields for echogenic puncture needles.

• Tissue biopsy: For space-occupying lesions in the liver, kidney, breast, thyroid and other organs, echogenic puncture needles guarantee accurate needle trajectory through lesions to retrieve high-quality tissue specimens. They are especially suitable for tiny lesions smaller than 1 cm, greatly elevating the positive diagnostic yield of pathological examinations.
• Tumor ablation: Radiofrequency, microwave and cryoablation therapies demand precise placement of ablation probes at the center or margins of tumors. Clear visualization of echogenic needles enables parallel or angled arrangement of multiple probes, ensuring full tumor coverage by the ablation zone while maximally preserving adjacent healthy tissue.

III. Emergency Medicine and ICU: Guardian of Life-Sustaining Access

• Rapid establishment of reliable vascular access is critical in emergent scenarios. Blind cannulation carries extremely high risks for patients suffering from shock, massive edema or severely poor vascular conditions.
• Central venous puncture: Applied for cannulation of internal jugular, subclavian and femoral veins, echogenic needles allow real-time visualization of the entire process of needle entry into the venous lumen and confirmation of guidewire placement, drastically cutting severe complications such as pneumothorax and accidental arterial puncture.
• Arterial puncture: Used for invasive blood pressure monitoring, it also boosts the first-pass success rate of radial and femoral artery cannulation.
• Pericardial, pleural and abdominal puncture drainage: In complex cases with minimal effusion or loculated fluid collections, echogenic needles safely facilitate drainage by precisely avoiding vital organs like lungs and intestines.

IV. Rehabilitation and Orthopedics: New Benchmark for Targeted Injection

For intra-articular injection, ganglion cyst aspiration, trigger point injection and other procedures, echogenic puncture needles ensure accurate drug delivery to lesioned areas. They eliminate the risk of tendon or ligament damage caused by misplaced steroid injections, enhancing both therapeutic efficacy and procedural safety.

Conclusion

Echogenic puncture needles have been integrated into nearly all clinical departments that perform puncture procedures. Acting not only as clinicians' "third eye" but also as a bridge linking diagnosis and treatment, they are reshaping operational standards for many traditional procedures and serve as an indispensable core component of the modern precision medicine system.