[Pre-therapeutic assessment of resectability in patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer. Combined use of endoscopic ultrasonography and laparoscopy].

The combined use of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and laparoscopy for the assessment of resectability in patients with upper GI tract cancer was prospectively evaluated in 57 patients. Laparoscopy was able to fill the informational gap in all the patients (n = 6) where EUS failed to give a complete assessment of resectability. This study suggests that the combination of EUS and laparoscopy can reduce the need for "necessary" laparoscopies to about 10%.