Faculty Bibliography

Over the last 2 decades there has been continuing development in endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS). EUS-guided pancreatic drainage is an evolving procedure that can be offered to patients who are high-risk surgical candidates and in whom the pancreatic duct cannot be accessed by endoscopic retrograde pancreatography. Although EUS-guided pancreatic drainage is a minimally invasive alternative option to surgery and interventional radiology, owing to its complexity and potential for fulminant complications it is recommended that these procedures be performed by highly skilled endoscopists. Additional data are needed to define risks and long-term outcomes more accurately via a dedicated prospective registry.

There are a variety of advanced gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, many of which are guided by endosonography, which are performed by interventional gastroenterologists or minimally-invasive surgeons. The purpose of this pictorial review is to briefly describe several advanced gastrointestinal endoscopically guided procedures, to review the implications for radiologists interpreting the associated imaging examinations, and to demonstrate the expected preprocedural imaging findings, as well as the expected and the unexpected postprocedural findings, in patients undergoing these procedures.