Enteroscopic Balloon Dilation in Small Bowel Stricturing Crohn's Disease: Long-Term Outcomes and Risk Factors for Surgery in a Single-Center Prospective Observational Study.

Background and aims: The long-term outcomes of enteroscopic balloon dilation for small bowel strictures in patients with Crohn's disease are not well understood. Although Crohn's strictures can be classified into web-like, ulcerated, and spindle-shaped strictures based on endoscopic findings, the outcomes of enteroscopic balloon dilation according to the shape of Crohn's strictures have not been analyzed. The primary outcome was to evaluate the cumulative surgery-free rate, and the secondary outcome was to evaluate the risk factor for subsequent surgery after enteroscopic balloon dilation.

Methods: This prospective, longitudinal, observational study enrolled patients with Crohn's disease who underwent enteroscopic balloon dilation for small bowel strictures using single-balloon enteroscopy between 2015 and 2023 at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

Results: A total of 150 consecutive patients who underwent 235 enteroscopic balloon dilations were included in this study with a mean follow-up of 42.4 ± 19.1 months. Thirty-one patients (20.7%) underwent surgery after enteroscopic balloon dilation, and the cumulative 1-, 3-, and 5-year surgery-free rates were 86.7%, 80.4%, and 76.6%, respectively. The cumulative surgery-free rates of enteroscopic balloon dilation for web-like, ulcerated, and spindle-shaped strictures were 96.3%, 91.0%, and 73.3% at 1 year, 96.3%, 84.9%, and 63.0% at 3 years, and 96.3%, 78.3%, and 63.0% at 5 years, respectively (p = 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified spindle-shaped stricture (vs. web-like stricture: hazard ratio [HR], 13.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.48-120.24, p = 0.021), ulcerated stricture (vs. web-like stricture: HR, 8.50; 95% CI, 1.05-69.03, p = 0.045), and conventional therapy only (vs. biologic therapy: HR, 2.51; 95% CI, 1.11-5.71; p = 0.028) as risk factors for surgery after enteroscopic balloon dilation. The major complication rate of enteroscopic balloon dilations was 2.7% (4/150) on per-patient analysis and 1.7% (4/235) on per-procedure analysis.

Conclusions: Enteroscopic balloon dilation for small bowel strictures in patients with Crohn's disease may be an effective and safe alternative to surgery. Enteroscopic balloon dilation for web-like strictures showed favorable outcomes and biologic therapy following enteroscopic balloon dilation may be helpful to avoid surgery.