Objective, patients and methods: The objective of this study was to evaluate the results of palliative bipolar electrocoagulation probe (BICAP) treatment in 26 patients with non surgical, obstructive esophageal cancer. The mean tumor length was 7.2 cm. The strictures were located as follows: 3 in the cervical esophagus, 8 in the thoracic esophagus, 13 in the distal third of the esophagus and 2 involved both the cervical and thoracic esophagus. Most lesions were circumferential (73% versus 27% non circumferential) and exophytic (78% versus 22% sub mucosal). Coagulation was carried out under direct endoscopic control in the forward direction. The success of treatment was evaluated on the basis of the degree of reopening achieved (easy passage of an endoscope 12 mm in diameter) and good functional results (improvement of dysphagia, scored from 0 to 4 using a standard grading scale, for more than 15 days).
Results: Twenty-six patients underwent a total of 45 BICAP treatments (31 initial sessions, 14 repeated sessions). Reopening was achieved in 92% of cases and good functional results were obtained in 85% (mean dysphagia score: 3.2 before treatment versus 1.1 after treatment). The improvement of dysphagia resulted in a significant improvement of general performance status and stabilization or weight improvement in 21 patients. The mean number of sessions necessary for good initial results was 1.2 +/- 0.4. After the initial treatment by BICAP, radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy were respectively associated in 4 and 10 patients. The median duration of improvement was significantly longer in patients who underwent radiochemotherapy as compared with patients treated by BICAP alone (22 weeks versus 4 weeks). During the follow-up, 9 patients required several BICAP treatments and at the end of their disease, 12 patients underwent other palliative procedures. Major complications occurred in 4 cases (2 esotracheal fistulas, 1 hemorrhage, and 1 aspiration pneumonia) and mortality related to the procedure was 8%.
Conclusions: Palliative BICAP treatment of obstructing esophageal and cardial cancer provide quick relief of dysphagia but repeated treatment sessions are necessary to maintain initial improvement. The procedure requires a short hospitalization stay and can be easily accomplished in all cases regardless of the tumor features.