Endoscopic Ultrasound Identifies Malignant Lymph Nodes in LT Work-up for Unresectable Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma

The study investigated the impact of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in the liver transplantation (LT) work-up for patients with unresectable perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PCCA). EUS screenings were performed on a selected group of patients, and the primary outcome was the number of patients precluded from further screening due to malignant lymph nodes (LN). The study found that EUS detected malignancy in LN in 4% of patients, with non-regional LN identified in 14% of surgical staging cases. The results suggest that systematic EUS screening of all LN stations and improved criteria for sampling suspicious lymph nodes could increase the yield.