You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Commentary
Long-term value of endoscopic dilatation for Crohn's strictures
  1. Walter A Koltun
  1. Correspondence to Professor Walter A Koltun, Chief, Colon and Rectal Surgery, Peter and Marshia Carlino Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Professor of Surgery, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State College of Medicine, Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, H137, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033, USA; wkoltun{at}hmc.psu.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/gut.2009.196139

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    In this issue of Gut, Thienpont and colleagues1 (see page 320) present one of the largest reported studies to date with the longest follow-up, evaluating the technique of endoscopic balloon dilatation of symptomatic Crohn's disease strictures. The authors should be commended for, first, technically refining this endoscopic technique which is increasingly being used in patients with Crohn's disease and, second, providing this very relevant longer term data that allows an assessment of its safety and success. Without a doubt, balloon dilatation of Crohn's disease strictures is becoming another valuable tool in the armamentarium of the clinician caring for the patient with Crohn's disease.

    The authors report on 138 patients undergoing 237 dilatations with a mean 5.8-year follow-up. Forty-four per cent of patients required no further therapy during the follow-up period, but 46% required further dilatation and 24% required surgery. The serious complication rate based on patients treated was 12/138 or …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Linked articles 180182

    • Competing interests None to declare.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles