What is a stethoscope used for?

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Stethoscope is designed for auscultation—listening to sounds inside the body. The chest piece captures vibrations from the heart, lungs, and abdomen and conveys them to the clinician’s ears, helping assess how the heart is beating, detect abnormal sounds like murmurs, wheezes, or crackles, and hear bowel sounds. It isn’t a tool that visualizes organs—that requires imaging like X-ray or ultrasound—and it doesn’t administer injections. While it can be used during blood pressure checks to hear the Korotkoff sounds as the cuff deflates, its primary purpose is listening to internal sounds rather than measuring pressure itself.