Endoscopic Ultrasound: Reaching Where Others Can’t

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been increasingly used for the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic cancer. It has recently become the modality of choice in assessing pancreatic lesions overcoming other traditional modalities. Typically lesions located at the tail of the pancreas are best accessed through the stomach. We present a patient with pancreatic tail mass occurring in the setting of a large hiatal hernia, intrathoracic stomach, and severe lumbar levoscoliosis. Due to altered anatomy and extensive vascular connections of the mass, any surgical or radiological intervention was considered high risk for the patient. EUS was the only modality capable of providing a pancreatic mass tissue sample in this patient with challenging thoraco-abdominal anatomy. Moreover, pancreatic tail lesions are traditionally best accessed through the gastric fundus; however, in view of the patient’s altered anatomy, EUS-fine needle aspiration (FNA) had to be performed through the duodenum. This case raises the importance of EUS when surgical and radiological interventions are restricted.