Why do I need an expensive stethoscope?

 In my experience, EMS professionals are fiercely loyal to the Littman brand of stethoscopes. I feel like some of that loyalty is mis-guided. I have heard from some folks that the quality has decreased from Littmans since they were bought by 3M, which I can totally believe. How good a specific scope is can be very difficulty to quantify, and working in the environments we do, I think that its important for our equipment to be mildly expendable. I mean, one can never be sure when they are going to have to restrain a patient with a combative head injury with nothing but a nasal cannula and their stethoscope tubing.

Maybe not, but its easy to see where I'm going. Its my opinion that a $100+ cardiology grade scope is a waste of money for your everyday EMT, and anyone who says otherwise is just repeating what they have heard. My scope is for blood pressures and lung sounds, and I don't have a problem hearing those things in the back of an ambulance with the cheap scope, so I can't justify paying a quarter of my monthly rent on something I don't really need.

But anyway, I recently purchased an American Diagnostic Corp. stainless steel stethoscope, it was $30, and I picked it up so I wouldn't have to pay shipping on an order I made at Galls.

ADC ADSCOPE 603 Stainless Stethoscope, Royal Blue


The clarity of sound is much better, and the soft-rubber ear plugs are very good at sealing out sound, and I am happy with my purchase so far. If I can hang on to this scope for a year without losing it, then maybe I might start to consider something more expensive if my opinion changes, or if I start listening for abnormal heart sounds on regular basis.

But in the end, in my limited experience, I have found that proper cuff sizing, proper cuff and scope placements, and making sure all your various tubes aren't knocking into each other and creating artifacts goes a long way towards getting good blood pressures.

But I'd like to hear other opinions.

Lastly, my mother is an RN, I asked her opinion:

"Just get a cheap one, expensive scopes just get stolen..."


UPDATE 8/16/11: Read my attitude shift towards different stethoscopes