Intrarectal ultrasonography in the staging and management of rectal tumors

Intrarectal ultrasonography (IRUS) was used in the preoperative staging of 17 patients with rectal neoplasms. Fourteen patients had biopsy proven adenocarcinoma, and three others had large villous adenomas. Comparisons were made between clinical examination, IRUS staging and subsequent histopathologic staging. IRUS was performed with a Bruel and Kjaer radial scanner, type 1849, equipped with a 7.0 MHz transducer. IRUS accurately staged 3/3 rectal villous adenomas, and 11/13 rectal adenocarcinomas compared with histopathology. Clinical exam correctly staged all three villous tumors, and 6/9 carcinomas (24% of lesions were not palpable). IRUS correctly diagnosed the status of regional nodes in 88% of patients. IRUS is a highly accurate preoperative staging tool for rectal cancers both in delineating depth of bowel wall invasion and in assessing regional lymph nodes. It is easy to perform, safe, and well tolerated by the patients. IRUS has definitely arrived as the state of the art in evaluating rectal neoplasms and may impact heavily on surgical decision making for these neoplasms.