[2-year pioneer experience with endoscopic ultrasonography, linear transducer]

Endoscopic ultrasonography has been applied in gastro enterology for more than 10 years in large medical centers as a special diagnostic tool. Such a technique has applications in tumoral and inflammatory processes and gives important information of the superior gastrointestinal tract. The objective of this study is to show a 2-year experience with linear echoendoscope in 200 operated patients. The equipment is a Toshiba 250 model with a Machida endoscope 7.5 MHz, electronic linear transducer. Endoscopic ultrasonography is successful in obtaining accurate diagnostic images, mainly of submucosal lesions, precise staging of a variety of gastrointestinal tumors, and detection small pancreatic masses and choledochal calculi.