Endorectal Ultrasonography in Detection of Local Lymph Nodes of Rectal Cancer

Background: Transrectal Ultrasonography (TRUS) has proven to be useful for locoregional staging of rectal carcinoma in specialized centres, but the investigation is not widely used. Aim: To assess the accuracy of Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) in local lymph nodes staging of rectal cancer. We compared EUS data with histological findings from surgical specimens. Methods: Twenty seven patients (17 males, 10 females) with ages ranging between 25 and 65 who have biopsy proven to be rectal tumor underwent ERUS examinations before surgery. All patients were evaluated to determine the diagnostic accuracy of lymph node metastasis. Imaging results were correlated with histopathological findings regarded as the gold standard. Results: The pathological N stage of the tumors was: pN0 in 16 patients, pN1 in 8 patients and pN2 in 3 patients. N0 was 15 cases of 16 cases about 93.75%, N1 was 6 case of 8 cases about 75%, N2 was 2 cases of 3 cases about 66.66% with p-value 0.005. Conclusion: EUS is an accurate imaging technique for local lymph nodes staging of rectal cancer.