Endoscopic balloon dilatation of postsurgical intestinal strictures in Crohn's disease: case report and review of the literature.

Strictures are one of the most common complications of Crohn's disease. If symptomatic and resistant to medical anti-inflammatory therapy, and especially in cases of acute obstruction, surgical correction may be unavoidable. Although surgical treatment is dramatically effective in curing Crohn's disease strictures, a high rate of postsurgical restenosis has been recognized, ultimately requiring additional surgery. To avoid the risks and costs entailed by repeated surgical resection, endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) has been proposed as a conservative treatment option for intestinal strictures in Crohn's disease, in which the stricture is pneumatically dilated with through-the-scope balloons of different diameters. The main clinical indication for EBD is the appearance of obstructive symptoms associated with the stricture, especially if they are postoperative and shorter than 4 centimeters. Usually more than one dilatation session is required for every stricture. EBD is applied infrequently, possibly due to the perceived risk of perforation and early stricture recurrence, but studies have demonstrated that EBD has a high success rate, a low chance of complications, excellent symptomatic response, as well as good short-term and long-term outcomes, proving that it is a relatively simple and successful technique that provides long-term effective palliation of the symptoms with minimal risk in patients with simple strictures, and offers a reasonable alternative to surgery.