The neurogastrointestinal team crafts personalized treatment plans for every patient with gastrointestinal neuromotility disorders, addressing their specific condition, individual health needs, lifestyle and goals.
Endoscopic stricture dilation is a successful outpatient treatment to widen narrowed sections of the esophagus so it’s easier to swallow food and liquid.
Narrowing, or strictures, is caused by various health conditions – cancer, radiation therapy and, most often, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) - that make swallowing painful or difficult, can leave you feeling like food is stuck in your chest or cause food to regurgitate from the stomach back into your mouth or throat.
We can do the procedure to dilate, or stretch, the narrowed section(s) during an endoscopy, while you are sedated, or by using a spray to numb the area while you are awake.
During the minimally invasive procedure, we insert an endoscope down your throat into the esophagus. Through that, we insert a deflated balloon to the stricture and fill it with water or air to gently stretch the esophagus. If there are multiple narrowed areas, we can use special thin tubes to stretch the entire esophagus. The entire procedure generally takes less than 30 minutes.
While patients usually return to normal activities the day after the procedure, you may have a sore throat for a few days. Other rare but potential risks include excessive bleeding, perforation of the esophagus or a reaction to the anesthesia.
Depending on the cause of your stricture, endoscopic stricture dilation might only be a temporary solution or you may need more than one session to feel better. Symptoms may return after time, although we can help you make dietary changes and adopt other medical therapies to delay or even prevent the need to redo the dilation in the future.