Utility of the endo-rectal ultrasonography with sectorial transducer in the study of rectoanal pathology

Objective: assessing the usefulness of endorectal ultrasonography with a se ctorial transducer to diagnose and determine the degree of rectoanal diseas e. Material and methods: we used a 5 MHz sectorial echograhic transducer to st udy 61 successive patients, 22 of them with a suspicion or diagnosis of ano rectal neoplasia (group I); 25 with perianal suppurating disease (group II) ; 9 with faecal incontinence (group III) and 5 with chronic idiopathic anal disease (group IV) Results: in group I, 3 patients (13.63%) were sent to us with a suspicion o f anorectal cancer which was not confirmed for any of them. For other 3 pat ients (13.63%) we had to rule out a neoplastic relapse which was only confi rmed in one case; in 16 patients (72.72%) we had to establish tumour stage, which we achieved in 81.25% of cases. In group II, 2 patients had Crohn's perianal disease (8%), 10 patients showed a perianal abscess, (40%) and 13 (52%) individuals had fistula tracts whose internal orifices could be found in 53.84% of cases. In all patients sent with faecal incontinence (group I II) we could delimit sphincter interruption. A sphincter abscess was found in one of the 5 patients sent to us with chronic idiopathic anal pain, alth ough it had not been diagnosed before. Conclusions: sectorial endorectal ultrasonography is a very useful techniqu e in the study of tumour and rectoanal suppurating diseases, as well as of faecal incontinence. It is also of great importance for patients with chron ic idiopathic anal pain.