Endoscopic Dilatation & Stenting

Overview

Your health care provider will likely ask you for a description and history of your swallowing difficulties, perform a physical examination, and use various tests to find the cause of your swallowing problem.

Tests can include:

  • X-ray with a contrast material (barium X-ray)
  • Dynamic swallowing study
  • A visual examination of your esophagus (endoscopy)
  • Fiber-optic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES)
  • Esophageal muscle test (manometry)
  • Imaging scans
endoscopic dilatation stenting

Why it's done

Your doctor might recommend a capsule endoscopy procedure to:

  • Find the cause of gastrointestinal bleeding
  • Diagnose inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease
  • Diagnose cancer
  • Diagnose celiac disease
  • Examine your esophagus
  • Screen for polyps
  • Do follow-up testing after X-rays or other imaging tests

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Surgery

Surgery might be needed to relieve swallowing problems caused by throat narrowing or blockages, including bony outgrowths, vocal cord paralysis, pharyngoesophageal diverticula, GERD and achalasia, or to treat esophageal cancer. Speech and swallowing therapy is usually helpful after surgery.

The type of surgical treatment depends on the cause of dysphagia. Some examples are:

  • Laparoscopic Heller myotomy
  • Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM)
  • Esophageal dilation
  • Stent placement
  • Onabotulinumtoxina
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