We studied 22 patients who underwent surgery for suspected pancreatic carcinoma. One individual was found to have a normal pancreas and one mass was finally diagnosed as chronic pancreatitis. Accurate diagnoses were made preoperatively in 63% of our patients. All masses were palpated intraoperatively. Operative ultrasonography confirmed these findings and the absence of a mass in the patient with a normal pancreas. Operative sonography (OS) revealed 2 previously undetected lesions and permitted 2 biopsies of lesions under its guidance. It was helpful in diagnosing 18% of lesions. In evaluating the spread of pancreatic carcinoma, OS was very helpful in 32% of our patients and moderately helpful in 18%. OS thus helped to direct surgical management in 50% of our patients, by providing information that limited dissection in patients with unresectable spread or permitted resection to proceed in the absence of evidence of unresectability.

Meningiomas of the third ventricle are rare intracranial neoplasms. We reported such a case in a 42 years old man without clinical evidence of increased intracranial pressure. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated the tumour sitting in the superior and anterior part of the third ventricle, bulging into the lateral ventricles. CT was more effective than MRI in the demonstration of calcifications whereas MRI proved to be superior in delineation of the tumour and its relation with surrounding structures.