Short and long-term outcomes of endoscopic balloon dilatation for Crohn’s disease strictures

Figure 1 Overview of treatment outcomes for 47 strictures. Long-term outcomes were evaluated for the 44 successfully-treated strictures after a median follow-up of 26 mo (range, 2-172 mo). During the observation period, re-strictures after endoscopic balloon dilatations (EBDs) occurred in 26 cases (60.5%). Fourteen of these 26 re-stricture cases underwent EBD again, but in two EBD failed and surgery was ultimately performed in both cases. Twelve of the 26 re-stricture cases were initially treated surgically when the re-strictures occurred. Finally, 30 of the 47 strictures (63.8%) were successfully managed with EBD, allowing surgery to be avoided.

Figure 2 Long-term outcomes of endoscopic balloon dilatation by the Kaplan-Meier method. Intervention-free survival evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 75% at 12 mo, 58% at 24 mo, and 43% at 36 mo. Surgery-free survival evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 90% at 12 mo, 75% at 24 mo, and 53% at 36 mo. EBD: Endoscopic balloon dilatation.

Figure 3 Surgery-free survivals-anastomotic vs de novo strictures. The 16 anastomotic strictures were associated with significantly better surgery-free survivals than the 28 de novo strictures (log-rank test: P < 0.05).