4 years' experience in the treatment of upper gastrointestinal strictures with balloon dilatation (analysis of 164 cases)

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One hundred and sixty-four cases of upper gastrointestinal strictures were treated with balloon dilatation in a period of 4 years. Totally 682 procedures were performed. Among them, sequential treatment and follow-up studies were done in 140 cases including anastomotic stricture 95, corrosive stricture of esophagus 33 and other kinds of stenosis of esophagus 12. The total effective rate was 90% (126/140) and long term effective rate 71.4% (100/140). Failure was observed in 14 cases (10%), of which 11 cases were due to tumor recurrence. In this paper the authors proposed the concept about short-term and long-term effect and criteria for evaluation; The factors influencing the effectiveness and the number of procedure undertaken are related to the cause and degree of stricture as well as the time selected for dilatation. The indications for such dilatation treatment are anastomotic stricture of upper gastrointestinal tract, esophageal web and corrosive stricture of esophagus. This method could be used as the treatment of choice, for cicatrical stricture of upper gastrointestinal tract of various causes.