thesis
Novel Developments in ERCP and EUS
- Publication date
- 22 November 2013
- Publisher
- This thesis focuses on the diagnostic and therapeutic role of endoscopic retrograde
cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) in benign
and malignant pancreaticobiliary disease. Since the first practical applications of ERCP
and EUS were developed in the first half of the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties,
respectively, both techniques have evolved in concurrence with the general trend in
endoscopy from being merely diagnostic tools to full-fledged therapeutic procedures
during which complex diseases can be treated and invasive surgical procedures can be
avoided.
In a way the pancreas and, to a lesser extent, the biliary system are orphan organs.
Due to their relative inaccessibility both for physicians and surgeons and the poor prognosis
of malignant pancreaticobiliary disease, the quantity and quality of research in this
field traditionally has not been up to par compared with standards in some other areas
of research in the medical field. Fortunately times have changed and the pancreas, bile
ducts and its associated diseases are now one of the most actively researched topics in
basic, translational and clinical research.
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of EUS in the diagnosis of benign,
premalignant and malignant pancreatic disease, to evaluate a novel method of tissue
acquisition through EUS and summarize the latest developments of therapeutic endosonography.
Furthermore the