Percutaneous fine-needle pancreatic pseudocyst puncture guided by three-dimensional sonography.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: At present a pancreatic pseudocyst puncture guided by ultrasonography is a treatment of choice in the majority of hospitals. A classical two-dimensional sonography is usually implemented in these cases. However, its shortcomings, mainly in differential diagnosis, are acknowledged by most physicians. The real time monitoring of a fine-needle pseudocyst procedure by two-dimensional ultrasonography is of questionable reliability. In our study we evaluated the usefulness of three-dimensional sonography in the percutaneous fine-needle pancreatic pseudocyst puncture.

METHODOLOGY

We examined fifty-two patients diagnosed as having pancreatic pseudocysts on the basis of clinical symptoms and two-dimensional ultrasonography findings. Then the decision to qualify certain patients for the percutaneous fine-needle aspiration guided by ultrasonography was made on the basis of two- and three-dimensional scan results. The next step in our investigation was to implement color Doppler in order to visualize all blood vessels at the planned biopsy site. Three-dimensional sonography was used to monitor the tip of the needle making its way to the pancreatic pseudocyst and later inside the fluid collection.

RESULTS

Pancreatic pseudocysts were diagnosed in all of the 52 cases. Three-dimensional sonography was more precise in visualizing the shape and size than two-dimensional ultrasound scans.

CONCLUSIONS

Three-dimensional presentation can better visualize irregular shapes, local thickenings, and calcification of pseudocyst walls than classical two-dimensional ultrasound scans. The use of subtraction in three-dimensional scans of blood vessels increases the safety in performing biopsies. It makes the aspiration of cytologic materials much safer to perform. In our study we have shown that three-dimensional sonography collects extremely useful information about the status of the pseudocyst structure and it should become a complementary method to classical ultrasonography. This technique when used on a routine basis ought to help us change the inclusion criteria for guided biopsies.