Efficacy of Endoscopic Ultrasound in General Surgery: Impact and Results Efficacy of Endoscopic Ultrasound

Abstract

Endoscopic ultrasound is an advanced diagnostic tool in General Surgery that arises from the combination (endoscopy + ultrasound) and offers a detailed evaluation of internal organs and neighboring structures. The aim of the study was to develop a systematic review of the existing medical literature on the efficacy of endoscopic ultrasound in General Surgery during the period 2019-2024. A meta-analysis was carried out based on the Prisma methodology, which included a systematic review of the scientific literature published in worldwide databases: Scopus, Proquest and Web of Science in the last five years (2019-2024) in Spanish or English, based on specific descriptors in both languages, to discuss the efficacy of endoscopic ultrasound in General Surgery. Two of the authors of this research independently reviewed the literature, while one reviewer extracted the data. Two models were used to statistically combine the results, the fixed-effect model and the random-effects model, which allowed the contributions and impact of endoscopic ultrasound to be summarized in a synthetic way. 42 studies were included: 23 Case Series, 6 Clinical Trials, 6 Cohorts, 1 Case-Control, 1 Experimental Explanatory Study and 7 Metaanalysis. The effectiveness of endoscopic ultrasound was demonstrated to diagnose, stage and treat various surgical pathologies; its ability to visualize in detail the internal structures of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and bile ducts that allowed an accurate evaluation of tumors and submucosal lesions, as well as the performance of biopsies with minimal invasion; On the other hand, it facilitated therapeutic interventions such as the drainage of abscesses or pseudocysts and the placement of stents, which reduces the need for invasive surgeries in patients with stenotic lesions. It can be concluded that these characteristics make it an indispensable tool that affects early diagnosis and timely treatment in surgical pathologies, significantly improving the prognosis, particularly in oncology.