Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Aug 16, 2025; 17(8): 104238
Published online Aug 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i8.104238
Innovative endoscopic alternatives for the conservative management of recurrent/refractory esophageal strictures in children: A case series
Chiara Imondi, Maria Elisabetta Bartoli, Filippo Torroni, Simona Faraci, Tamara Caldaro, Paola De Angelis, Valerio Balassone
Chiara Imondi, Filippo Torroni, Simona Faraci, Tamara Caldaro, Paola De Angelis, Valerio Balassone, Department of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital IRCCS, Rome 00165, Lazio, Italy
Maria Elisabetta Bartoli, Department of Pediatric Surgery Academy, Tor Vergata University of Rome, Rome 00165, Lazio, Italy
Author contributions: Imondi C, Bartoli ME, and Balassone V designed the study, performed the literature review and structured the report; Imondi C, Torroni F, Faraci S, Caldaro T, and De Angelis P performed the procedures described in the clinical cases; Torroni F, Faraci S, Caldaro T, and De Angelis P participated in the literature review and revised the manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, approval No. 2817_OPBG_2025.
Informed consent statement: Complete written informed consent has been obtained from the involved patients’ parents for unlabeled treatments.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: All published data are proprieties of Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital IRCCS-Rome.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Valerio Balassone, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital IRCCS, Piazza Sant’Onofrio 4, Rome 00165, Lazio, Italy. valerio.balassone@opbg.net
Received: December 25, 2024
Revised: March 26, 2025
Accepted: July 2, 2025
Published online: August 16, 2025
Processing time: 237 Days and 9.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The management of refractory and recurrent esophageal strictures is particularly challenging in pediatric age. Reiterative endoscopic dilations and replacement surgery are the standard treatment but burdened by high procedural risks and non-negligible economic and social costs. Several adjuvant strategies have proven inadequate as real alternatives to surgery. Here we report our experience with the most innovative adjuvant techniques for the treatment of recurrent esophageal strictures, focusing on their medium-term efficacy and safety, with the aim of avoiding or, at least, postponing invasive replacement surgery, until patients’ greater clinical stability and better nutritional status is achieved.