Utility of endoscopic ultrasound and endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration for the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cystic lesions: Differences between the guidelines

Abstract

Recent advances and frequent use of cross-sectional imaging studies have increased opportunities for incidental diagnoses of pancreatic cystic lesions (PCL). In the management of PCL, distinguishing between mucinous versus non-mucinous and malignant versus benign cysts is important to diagnose pancreatic cancer in its early stage. For this reason, there have been several guidelines to manage PCL. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) play important roles in the guidelines, although there are some differences in their roles. In this review, we aimed to evaluate the current status of EUS and EUS-FNA in the management of PCL and the status of these procedures in the guidelines.

Keywords: contrast-enhanced harmonic endoscopic ultrasound; endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography; intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm; mucinous cystic neoplasm; serous cystic neoplasm.