Integrating Musculoskeletal Ultrasound and Emerging Imaging Modalities in Surgical Planning and Rehabilitation

Recent advances in medical imaging, particularly in ultrasound and multimodal imaging, have transformed the surgical landscape by enhancing every stage of the surgical process, from diagnosis and preoperative planning to intraoperative guidance, postoperative follow-up, and rehabilitation. These high-resolution imaging techniques—like shear-wave elastography, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, and hybrid modalities—offer real-time, radiation-free assessments, vital for diverse surgical fields such as orthopedics, cardiovascular, neurosurgery, oncology, visceral, and reconstructive surgeries. Despite these advancements, consistent integration across disciplines and maximizing the utility of these techniques throughout the surgical and rehabilitation continuum still pose challenges that must be addressed to fully exploit their potential.

This Research Topic aims to explore and document novel applications of ultrasound and advanced imaging technologies within the surgical and rehabilitative frameworks. It encourages submissions focusing on improving preoperative planning and patient-specific modeling, enhancing intraoperative navigation and monitoring, and advancing ultrasound-guided interventions. Specifically, the topic seeks to understand how these imaging techniques can be translated into clinical practice, with an emphasis on reducing complications, optimizing patient-centered rehabilitation, and linking imaging biomarkers with functional recovery outcomes. This effort will involve examining imaging metrics, creating patient-centric care models, and developing innovative protocols to foster collaboration between surgery, radiology, and physiotherapy.

To gather further insights into the integration of ultrasound and advanced imaging in surgical care and rehabilitation, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Preoperative planning incorporating patient-specific modeling techniques
- Advanced intraoperative navigation and real-time monitoring strategies
- Ultrasound-guided interventions and their clinical applications
- Imaging biomarkers for tissue healing and functional recovery
- Outcome studies correlating imaging data with therapy effectiveness and rehabilitation
- Collaborative protocols and translational innovations in surgery, imaging, and rehabilitation

By gathering contributions from diverse specialties, this collection aims to demonstrate how cross-disciplinary imaging strategies can enhance surgical outcomes, reduce complications, and optimize patient-centered rehabilitation, ultimately strengthening the link between precise imaging and comprehensive clinical care.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: ultrasound, Advanced imaging, Image-guided procedures, perioperative care, surgical planning, rehabilitation, multimodal imaging

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.