TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Culdocentesis A1 - Leuck, JoAnna A1 - Cizenski, Jennalee A2 - Reichman, Eric F. PY - 2018 T2 - Reichman's Emergency Medicine Procedures, 3e AB - Culdocentesis is a procedure used to sample peritoneal fluid to help confirm a diagnosis or to obtain a culture. It has mainly been used for diagnosing a ruptured ectopic pregnancy or ruptured ovarian cyst.1-11 Culdocentesis involves introducing a hollow needle through the posterior vaginal cuff and into the peritoneal space.1-11 This is a relatively simple and fast procedure. Ultrasound (US) has virtually replaced culdocentesis as the test of choice. US is minimally invasive, has high sensitivity, has a high specificity, and involves no ionizing radiation. Culdocentesis may still prove to be an important skill for the Emergency Physician to consider using for unstable patients and in low-resource settings that do not have US capabilities. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1159807091 ER -