Endoscopic treatment of benign and malignant strictures of the cervical esophagus and hypopharynx.

Objectives: We evaluated the efficacy of endoscopic techniques employed in the management of cervical esophageal and hypopharyngeal strictures.

Methods: A series of 45 patients with cervical esophageal (35) and/or hypopharyngeal strictures (10) were included. Twenty-five patients (55.6%) with neoplastic strictures were treated for palliation alone. The stenosis was related to radiotherapy in 11 patients (24.4%) and to postsurgical complications in 9 (20%). A group of 23 patients was treated with dilation alone (group 1). A second group included 22 patients treated with insertion of a self-expandable stent after failure of dilation treatment (group 2). The swallowing test data, clinical notes, and surgical reports were reviewed.

Results: All of the patients showed some degree of relief of dysphagia. In group 1, 19 of the 23 patients required multiple dilation treatments to maintain normal deglutition. In group 2, 7 of the 22 patients recovered regular oral feeding after stent placement, 10 patients reported pain and foreign body sensation, 2 patients reported pain so severe that stent removal was required, and 3 patients experienced stent migration. All but 3 of the 25 patients with inoperable tumors died during follow-up, but no patients with benign stenosis died.

Conclusions: The two groups showed comparable functional results. Dilation often requires multiple procedures, but is usually well tolerated. Placement of self-expandable stents is effective, but is generally less well tolerated.