Assessment of benign esophageal stricture dilated by balloon using liquid scintigraphy.

Benign esophageal strictures with a diameter of less than 10 mm were dilated by balloon catheter in 15 patients. Liquid esophageal transit scintigraphy was performed before, the day after, and 3 weeks following dilatation. Before treatment the mean esophageal transit was 38 s (range, 8.0-120). The day after dilatation the mean transit time was 20 s (range, 7.5-120), which differed significantly (p less than 0.01) from the pretreatment value. At the 3 weeks check-up, the mean transit time was 16 s (range, 4.5-120), which did not differ (NS) from the result obtained the day after treatment. Thus, esophageal liquid transit improves rapidly and lasts for at least 3 weeks. Improvement in esophageal liquid transit did not always accord with the clinical outcome after dilatation, which was significantly (p less than 0.05) related to the postdilatation stricture width as measured radiographically.