The role of EUS and EUS-FNA in the management of pancreatic masses: five-year experience.

Background/aims: The efficacy of endoscopic ultrasound with fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic malignancy is quite well established. The aim of this study is to describe a single-centre's experience.

Methodology: Data were collected retrospectively on all patients with solid pancreatic masses undergoing EUS-FNA from January 2006 to March 2011. In tumor cases, TNM staging using EUS was compared with the results of histopathological staging.

Results: EUS-FNA of pancreatic lesions was performed in 125 patients. Of these patients, data of 75 were available (69% men, mean age 59.97±11.12 (SD) years); 58 (76%) of the lesions were ductal adenocarcinoma, 11 (14.5%) were chronic pancreatitis, 4 (%5) were intraductal papillary mucinous carcinoma (IPMN) and 2 (%3) were insulinoma. Diagnostic yield of the EUS-FNA procedure was 74.7% (56/75). Specimens from six patients were inadequate. In multivariate analysis, lesion diameter below 2cm was an independent predictor for the inadequacy of material (p=0.04).

Conclusions: In patients with pancreatic mass with suspected malignancy, EUS-FNA provided a diagnosis with accuracy rate of 75%. Inadequate material with EUS-FNA was significantly more frequent in lesions below 2cm.