[Intraoperative echography: the state of the art]

The intraoperative ultrasound (IOUS) is a diagnostic technique, of not recent introduction in the clinical practice, that nevertheless has not yet achieved the capillary and extensive diffusion that would deserve for his elevated sensitivity and specificity in the study of parenchymas (particularly liver and pancreas) as well as in the study alterations of ducts (for example the biliary tree) or of vessels. The authors, in the present article, describes the present uses and the actual diagnostical potentialities of the IOUS in the varied fields of more frequent uses in surgery and particularly in the liver surgery, in the surgery of the common bile duct and in the pancreatic surgery; and in addiction pointing out the possible advantages that the introduction of more recent technologies (for example the color and the power Doppler) n the routine of operating room will bring in the correct surgical management and particularly in oncologic surgery.