Comparison of Pneumatic Dilation with Pneumatic Dilation Plus Botulinum Toxin for Treatment of Achalasia

Among the therapeutic options for achalasia are pneumatic dilatation (PD), an appropriate long-term therapy, and botulinum toxin injection (BT) that is a relatively short-term therapy. This study aimed to compare therapeutic effect of repetitive pneumatic dilation with a combined method (botulinum t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Alireza Bakhshipour, Romina Rabbani, Shapoor Shirani, Hosein ASL Soleimani, Javad Mikaeli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2010-03-01
Series:Acta Medica Iranica
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Online Access:http://journals.tums.ac.ir/PdfMed.aspx?pdf_med=/upload_files/pdf/15255.pdf&manuscript_id=15255
Description
Summary:Among the therapeutic options for achalasia are pneumatic dilatation (PD), an appropriate long-term therapy, and botulinum toxin injection (BT) that is a relatively short-term therapy. This study aimed to compare therapeutic effect of repetitive pneumatic dilation with a combined method (botulinum toxin injection and pneumatic dilation) in a group of achalasia patients who are low responder to two initial pneumatic dilations. Thirty- four patients with documented primary achalasia that had low response to two times PD (<50% decrease in symptom score and barium height at 5 minute in timed esophagogram after 3month of late PD) were randomized to receive pneumatic dilation (n=18) or botulinum toxin injection and pneumatic dilation by four weeks interval (n=16), PD and BT+PD groups respectively. Symptom scores were evaluated before and at 1, 6 and 12 months after treatment. Clinical remission was defined as a decrease in symptom score ≥ 50% of baseline. There were no significant differences between the two groups in gender, age and achalasia type. Remission rate of patients in BT-PD group in comparison with PD group were 87.5% vs. 67.1% (P = 0.7), 87.5% vs. 61.1% (P = 0.59) and 87.5% vs. 55.5% (P = 0.53) at 1, 6 and 12 months respectively .There were no major complications in either group. The mean symptom score decreased by 62.71% in the BT-PD group (P < 0.002) and 50.77% in the PD group (P < 0.01) at the end of the first year. Despite a better response rate in BT+PD group, a difference was not statistically significant. A difference may be meaningful if a large numbers of patients are included in the study.
ISSN:0044-6025