Grey-scale ultrasonography and endoscopic pancreatography after pancreatic trauma

We have recently used grey-scale ultrasonography and endoscopic pancreatography to investigate 11 patients with symptoms attributed to pancreatic trauma weeks, months or even years earlier. The pancreas was normal in one patient, and another, who presented with pain and jaundice after a car accident, was shown to have cancer of the pancreatic head. The remaining patients all had local lesions due to trauma; ultrasound showed a mass or cyst close to the point of duct obstruction or stenosis shown on pancreatography. Ultrasonography and pancreatography can together provide a precise map with which to plan effective management in patients having suffered pancreatic trauma.