Management Guidelines for Pancreatic Cystic Lesions: Should we Adopt or Adapt the Current Roadmaps?

Abstract

Pancreatic cystic lesions are very prevalent, especially in elderly patients and are increasingly being diagnosed because of the massive use of cross sectional imaging. Our knowledge about the natural history of these lesions is limited, especially in the case of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms. This fact explains why scientific societies guidelines statements are based on evidence graded as very low quality and helps the understanding of some of the different guidelines recommendations. Several guidelines have been recently revised to incorporate the new evidence published in the literature with the aim to help clinicians make the best decisions. American Gastroenterological Association guidelines, a revision of the International Consensus Guidelines, the American College of Gastroenterology and the European Study Group guidelines are the most recent. Herein we review the current guidelines on pancreatic cysts and focus our discussion on controversies and updates about the best imaging modalities, the indications for endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration, cyst fluid analysis, indications for resection and surveillance strategies.