[Endoscopic sonography of the upper digestive tract]

Abstract

Endoscopic sonography (EUS) enables systematic and detailed imaging of the wall of the upper gastrointestinal tract and its immediate neighbourhood. Update equipment supplies a circular image and is fitted with an instrumentation channel for executing transmural fine needle biopsies. Preoperative staging of oesophageal and gastric carcinomas is enhanced by EUS. This method should be used with every patient suffering from dysphagia. EUS is the most sensitive method in assessing the extension of gastric lymphomas and in the delineation of small (less than 2 cm) pancreatic tumours. In on-target problems EUS should be used as a method that is complementary to the conventional morphological methods.