Clinical application of linear ultrasound probes

The linear ultrasound probe should be viewed as an adjunct to conventional endoscopic ultrasonography with combined ultrasound endoscopes. It certainly does not replace these instruments for staging neoplasms and imaging extraintestinal organs such as the pancreas. It can be a simpler alternative to these instruments when applied at the time of endoscopy to obtain more information about wall thickness and the cause of an intramural mass. It can add information when used to image within impassable malignant strictures. Further development of the linear probes with the addition of a balloon over the transducer and the advent of new probes that utilize other scanning mechanisms is anticipated and should make this imaging system even more useful.