German Survey on EUS-Guided Diagnosis and Management of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs) - Evidence or "Gut-Feeling"?

To examine practice patterns of endosonographers in diagnosing and managing gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) in Germany.A modified published survey (Ha et al., Gastrointest Endosc 2009) was sent to endosonographic ultrasound (EUS) customers in Germany. The survey was also publicized on the homepage of an EUS interest group. To avoid duplicate opinions, participants were asked to return one survey per institution.142 centers of roughly 850 German EUS centers responded. 25 % were from University hospitals and 74 % from community hospitals. 61 % performed 2 EUS scans for suspected subepithelial lesions/week. Although 97 % of respondents believed that tissue acquisition with CD117 immuno…