Doctors perform rare Endoscopic Ultrasound

Doctors from the Department of Gastroenterology at Justice KS Hegde Charitable Hospital, Deralakatte have performed Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) guided fine needle aspiration and biopsy procedure in Mangaluru. The Endoscopic Ultrasound has a special ultrasound probe which enables doctors to perform the scan from inside the stomach. This procedure is very useful to facilitate cancer diagnosis at an early stage.

Saif (name changed) a 42-year-old male patient had complaints of abdominal pain and jaundice. He was evaluated elsewhere and a CT scan was done that showed features of chronic pancreatitis with no evidence of pancreatic mass lesion. His pancreas was scanned from the inside of the stomach using the advanced endoscopic ultrasound probe and a tumour was located within the head of the pancreas. Histopathological examination confirmed the presence of cancer and the patient was referred to surgery as the tumour was detected at an early stage and amenable to surgical intervention. This technique highlights the advantages of Endoscopic Ultrasound especially in the early detection of cancer and facilitating prompt treatment even in cases that may have been missed by CT or MRI scans.

The team included doctors Chandrashekar Sorake and Ganaraj from the Medical Gastroenterology department, surgeons under Dr Rajashekar (HoD), Dr Rajesh Ballal (Unit Chief) and anaesthesiologists under Dr Anand Bangera (HoD), pathologists including Dr Padma Shetty under the HoD of pathology Dr Jayaprakash Shetty.