How balloon treatment helped cats and dogs with esophageal strictures

Abstract

Benign esophageal strictures in 6 cats and 7 dogs were treated with endoscopically guided balloon dilatation. Six of 13 had a history of anesthesia within 3 weeks prior to the onset of signs; 8 animals had a single stricture, and 5 had multiple strictures, for a total of 19 strictures. Four of the 19 strictures were in the upper esophagus, 11 were in the middle esophagus, and 4 were in the lower esophagus. The luminal diameters ranged from 1 to 18 mm, with a mean of 5.1 mm. Twelve animals survived the immediate postprocedure period and had a total of 50 dilatation procedures performed; the mean number of procedures per animal was 4.2 (range, 2 to 8). Complications included mild bleeding and tearing (11 of 13), moderate bleeding (1 of 13), and esophageal perforation (1 of 13). The cat with the perforation was subsequently euthanized. Follow-up information was available on the 12 remaining animals; 9 were known to be alive 6 to 59 months (mean, 28.2 months) after dilatation. Two were euthanized, 1 for persistence of signs and the other for unrelated causes. One animal died of possible aspiration pneumonia. Three of 13 animals had complete and 9 had partial resolution of signs. Of the 9 animals with partial resolution, 7 were substantially better with dietary modification, 1 was moderately better, and 1 had minimal improvement. Eleven of 13 animals (85%) had a successful outcome with moderate to complete resolution of signs. Thus, it is concluded that endoscopically guided balloon dilatation is an effective and relatively safe treatment for benign esophageal strictures in dogs and cats.