[Intraoperative abdominal echography]

Experience with and the impressions of adopting intraoperative abdominal echography in eighteen patients, aged 26 to 73 years, 9 men and 9 women, are shared. The distribution of patients by pattern of diseases is as follows: colorectal carcinoma--4 cases, liver echinococcus--one, gastric carcinoma--one, hepatocellular carcinoma--one, cholangitis acuta purulenta-one, echinococcus of lung and liver--one, calculous cholecystitis with choledocholithiasis--five, and carcinoma of ductus choledochus--one. Fifty intraoperative abdominal echographies and one intrathoracic supradiaphragmatic echography of the liver are performed. Intraoperative abdominal echography of tumors involving organs of the digestive tract contributes to specify the staging of the neoplastic process. In liver echinococcus it determines precisely the number of cysts and diagnoses impalpable cystic formations, while in choledocholithiasis it documents the presence of calculi in the biliary tracts and eventual dilatation of intrahepatic ones. In five patients intraoperative abdominal echographic is done in conjunction with intraoperative fiber choledochoscopy.