This book, the proceedings of Falk Symposium 152 a oeEndoscopy 2006 a" Update and Live Demonstrationa, held in Berlin, Germany, 4--5 May 2006 as part of the Intestinal Disease Meeting, provides an update on the entire spectrum of gastrointestinal endoscopy and its interface with gastroenterology as well as other disciplines. Endoscopy plays a pivotal role in gastroenterology and, vice versa, is crucially dependent on new developments and inventions in gastroenterology and basic sciences as well as technical progress.

The first section deals with the most relevant new technologies including conventional and novel endoscopic imaging as well as new developments in therapeutic gastrointestinal endoscopy, pancreatobiliary endoscopy and ultrasound. The second part highlights the role of endoscopy in special areas, e.g. inflammatory bowel syndrome or pediatrics. Therapeutic endoscopy of biliary and pancreatic diseases is often difficult and involves risks. The third section contains papers on hilar tumors and chronic pancreatitis.

Prevention and adequate management of complications is the topic of the final section. It is important to maintain high standards in interventional endoscopy. Complications can arise when patients are sedated, which is mostly the routine in daily endoscopic practice; during dilatation of gastrointestinal strictures perforations can occur or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography may result in post-interventional pancreatitis.

The introduction of endosonographically guided fine-needle biopsy has led to increasing use of longitudinal scans in the endosonographic diagnosis of tumors and other diseases of the upper gastrointestinal tract as well as of the pancreas. In this handbook, experts concentrate primarily on practical aspects of using endosonography with longitudinal scans. Examination techniques, interpretation of the ultrasound images, and normal anatomy with important guiding structures are demonstrated by means of 3D CT images and the corresponding endosonographic images. In addition, pathological endosonographic findings and the current status of diagnosis using fine-needle biopsy are described.