Corrosive Esophageal Strictures: Alarming News for Gastroenterologists

Dysphagia is a common yet alarming symptom reported by patients during routine visits to outpatient clinics of gastroenterology. Most of them have a chronic history gastroesophageal reflux disease and use of proton pump inhibitors or anti reflux medications for years. The agonising part is that they are not referred by the physicians in the general practice. One of the major reasons behind this is persistent reluctance of patients to go for invasive investigations   Gastroesophgeal reflus disease, achalasia ,hiatal hernia,benign esophgeal strictures, barrets esophagus and esophageal carcinoma are common causes of dysphagia. One of the causes which has been quite prevalent in our country is use of corrosives especially young girls and boys who are emotionaland depressed.  They do something very outrageous in a  moment which becomes a reason for regret for a long time .Corrosive esophgeal strictures isn’t that difficult got gastroenterology experts in normal circumstances but the cases can get complicated rarely including the risk of perforation in early stages of injury. Endoscopic dilatation either by Savory or TTS Balloon has been the cardinal line of management of corrosive strictures. They are done after necessary workup and investigations including barium swallow . The real dilemma is that patent develop complications like tracheoesophageal fistula after repeated dilatations. The length of follow up session are also difficult to determine with some centres opting for one weekly and others for two weekly sessions .Weekly sessions have been reported to ease off symptoms like dyphagia but causes higher risk of complications while in case of two weekly follow up there is enhanced risk of recurrence of symptoms and lesser complications.