What is Auscultation?

Answer 1

Definition

Auscultation is the method of listening to the sounds of the body during a physical examination.

Information

Auscultation is usually done using a tool called a stethoscope. Health care providers routinely listen to a patient's lungs, heart, and intestines to evaluate the frequency, intensity, duration, number, and quality of sounds.

Health care providers also use auscultation to listen to the heart sounds of unborn infants. This can be performed with a stethoscope or with sound waves (called Doppler ultrasound). It can also be used to hear pulses in the hands and feet.

Related topics:

• Abdominal sounds
• Breath sounds
• Heart sounds

Answer 2

Definition

Auscultation is the method of listening to the sounds of the body during a physical examination.

Information

Auscultation is usually done using a tool called a stethoscope. Health care providers routinely listen to a patient's lungs, heart, and intestines to evaluate the frequency, intensity, duration, number, and quality of sounds.

Health care providers also use auscultation to listen to the heart sounds of unborn infants. This can be performed with a stethoscope or with sound waves (called Doppler ultrasound). It can also be used to hear pulses in the hands and feet.

See also:

• Abdominal sounds
• Breath sounds
• Heart sounds

Reviewed By

Review Date: 05/29/2011

David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

Answer 3

The act of listening - such as hearing the heartbeat or lungs to aid in diagnosis of certain disorders.

Answer 4

It means to listen to the internal sounds of a person's body. A stethoscope aids in enhancing sound waves so that the human ear can better process the sound.

Answer 5

Auscultation means listening. It's what clinicians do with a stethoscope.