Bedside ultrasonography. A low-cost definitive diagnostic procedure in obstructive jaundice.

We evaluated real-time ultrasonography carried out by gastroenterologists for its diagnostic accuracy in 89 patients with obstructive jaundice. The positive predictive values for the site and nature of the obstruction were 94.3 and 89.9%, respectively. The advanced stage of disease in our patients and the clinical background of the investigators may have contributed to the high diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography in this study. Nevertheless, we recommend that gastroenterologists themselves perform bedside ultrasonography for a definitive diagnosis in patients with obstructive jaundice. The high degree of precision achieved by ultrasound in our setting makes more expensive investigations unnecessary as routine procedures.