An international survey of the clinical practice of EUS

No comparative information exists regarding clinical variations in EUS practice patterns among American and international endosonographers.

Eligible attendees of the XIIIth International Symposium on EUS, October 4-6 2002, New York, New York, were asked to complete a 2-page survey questionnaire on clinical practice of EUS.

A total of 191 of 391 eligible attendees (48.9%) participated in the survey (110 from the United States, 81 from 30 different countries). The mean age of participants was 40.5 (10.6) years, and 171 (89.5%) were men. A total of 102 endosonographers (53.4%) were in academic practice. The majority (150, 78.5%) also performed ERCP. Seventy-eight (40.8%) had performed EUS for more than 5 years and 21 (11%) for less than 1 year. Only 36 (18.8%) had more than 6 months of dedicated hands-on EUS training, and more than a third of the respondents learned to perform EUS by observing others or they were self-taught. Compared with respondents from the United States, relatively fewer international respondents were performing open-access EUS, pancreatobiliary EUS procedures, and interventions such as EUS-guided FNA and celiac plexus neuralysis.

This survey provides insight into the status of EUS as practiced in the United States and internationally. Although it appears that over the last decade EUS has become disseminated fairly uniformly on a global basis, a lack of consistent training standards and also inadequate opportunities for EUS training remain important areas of concern.