RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There was no single method satisfying accuracy, patient compliance and cost in preoperative staging of gastric cancer. A transabdominal ultrasonography of water-filled stomach (TUS) was compared with endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) for TN staging in operated gastric cancer. METHODS: We performed EUS conventionally and TUS immediately after 600 mL deaerated water ingested in 40 patients with gastric cancer prior to operation. All the cases were operated and the histological findings were compared with the results of preoperative TN staging. RESULTS: The overall T-staging accuracy rate of TUS was 62.5% and 55.0% for EUS. Both TUS and EUS could differentiate EGC from AGC in 85.0%. There was no statistical difference in the accuracy for the depth of cancer invasion between EUS and TUS. Differentiation of the cancer defined within the gastric wall (T3) from the cancer invading adjacent organs (T4) was possible in 92.5% for TUS and 87.5% for EUS. The accuracy of determining the depth of invasion was tent to be lower in fundus than in antrum and body. Lymph node metastasis was correctly diagnosed in 67.5% for TUS and in 70.0% for EUS. CONCLUSIONS: TUS may be a considered to be a relatively accurate and simple method for preoperative staging of gastric cancer in the absence of available EUS.