[The preoperative staging of rectal cancer. A comparative assessment between endorectal echography and pelvic CT]

The authors report a comparative study between endorectal ultrasonography (EU) and computed tomography (CT) in the preoperative assessment of 94 patients with rectal cancer. In evaluating the depth of wall penetration of rectal tumors EUS and CT offered good results: EUS confirmed a clear superiority with overall accuracy of 88.4% versus 80% of CT. On the contrary, in detecting lymph node metastases both techniques had poor results obtaining a correct diagnosis in 75.6% of the cases with EUS and in 69.4% of the cases with CT. In conclusion, the authors believe that EUS and CT may by very useful in the study of tumor penetration of the rectal wall; while in the study of lymph node involvement new techniques for a more accurate diagnosis are needed.