SIUMB recommendations for focal pancreatic lesions

Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is increasingly being performed in Italy and Europe, particularly in the field of hepato-gastroenterology. Initially, it was mainly carried out to characterize focal hepatic lesions, but, since then, numerous studies have demonstrated its efficacy in the differential diagnosis of focal pancreatic pathologies (D’Onofrio et al. in Expert Rev Med Devices 7(2):257–273, 2010; Vidili et al. in J Ultrasound 22(1):41–51, 2019). The purpose of this paper is to provide Italian Medical Doctors with recommendations and thereby practical guidelines on the management of these patients. The present paper reports the final conclusions reached by the SIUMB guideline commission. This paper addresses particularly percutaneous ultrasound (US) examination (transabdominal US) and is drawn up specifically for publication.