Savary dilation is a safe and effective long-term means of treatment of symptomatic cricopharyngeal bar: a single-center experience.

Goals: Dilation of a cricopharyngeal (CP) bar can be a safe and effective means of nonsurgical treatment as elderly patient population has high morbidity and is at a higher risk of surgical complications.

Background: CP bar is a relatively uncommon radiologic finding, which is an infrequent cause of oropharyngeal dysphagia in the elderly population.

Methods: Patients were included in study from January 2007 to January 2012, if their dysphagia was solely attributed to CP bar on predilation radiologic imaging by either modified barium swallow or barium esophagogram.