ABSTRACT
Post endoscopic sclerotherapy esophageal stricture is usually not fatal but may require several sessions of esophageal dilation as an effective palliative treatment yet has its own complications. The purpose of this study is to find out the predictors of sclerotherapy esophageal stricture. This is a cross sectional descriptive study of the esophageal stricture post sclerotherapy for the patients who were managed in the period from January 2000 through the June 2007 in endoscopic department at Ibn Sina Hospital. Post endoscopic sclerotherapy symptoms, signs, diagnostic and therapeutic methods were analysed to find out possible predictors of developing benign esophageal stricture. A 33 out of 10133 patients who had sclerotherapy were found to have esophageal stricture and were included in this study. 91% of them were males, 88% were <60years old and most of them were cases of hepatic periportal fibrosis. Only two patients had esophageal varices secondary to viral hepatitis B liver cirrhosis. Their presentation was commonly with difficulty in swallowing and few cases presented with food impaction. The majority of patients were treated with wire guided endoscopic Savary Gilliard dilation. Esophageal stricture following endoscopic injection sclerotherapy is a known morbidity; however the rate of these strictures is fairly acceptable. High dose of sclerotherapy in fewer sessions over a short period are potential predictors of esophageal stricture