[Interventionist endoscopic ultrasonography. A retrospective analysis of 60 procedures]

interventionist endoscopic ultrasonography is increasingly used because of its growing indications. We present here our retrospective and initial experience (60 procedures) with endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) both for diagnosis (EUS-FNA) and therapy (EUS-guided tumorectomy and mucosectomy).

in a group with 27 cases including 10 submucosal tumors (SMTs), 2 adenopathies, and 15 potential pancreatic tumors (8 pancreatic cancers), a sectorial EUS-FNA at 7.5 MHz was performed for diagnosis prior to therapy (mainly surgical). A pancreatic pseudocyst was drained. In 21 cases with 27 SMTs (10 patients with 13 carcinoids) a tumorectomy was carried out using the standard loop or assisted polypectomy technique with submucosal injection, and in a few cases (two) using elastic band ligation following a radial EUS at 7.5, 12, or 20 MHz. In 6 cases of superficial gastroesophageal cancer or gastric dysplasia an endoscopic mucosal resection (classic EMR) was performed after EUS or MPs at 7.5 and 20 MHz. Fifty-five patients with 60 lesions, 29 femaes and 26 males with a mean age of 60 years (30-88 years) were retrospectively analyzed.

diagnostic precision (P), sensitivity (S), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for EUS-FNA was 85, 83, 100, 100, and 43%, respectively, when comparing results with specimen histology. P was higher for adenopathies (100%) and pancreatic tumors (87%) than for SMTs (80%). No complications arose, except for one episode of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) (3.7%) that was endoscopically and satisfactorily treated in a gastric SMT. In the group with 21 patients (10 carcinoids with 13 tumors) 27 SMTs were endoscopically treated by tumorectomy with no perforation and only 2 UGIBs (7.4%), one of them self-limited, recorded. Endoscopic resection was complete in 92% of cases. No complications occurred with classic EMR, and all patients are still alive with no evidence of relapse, either local or metastatic. In this group the rate of complete resections was 100%.

EUS-FNA is a safe technique with high diagnostic accuracy. EUS-guided tumorectomy and mucosectomy are also safe and effective techniques in the endoscopic management of these tumors.