[Treatment of caustic stenosis of the esophagus with self-expanding devices]

Caustic stenosis is a serious problem in children due to its complicated resolution and implications in important areas like nutrition, as well as the child's tolerance to the measures taken to correct them. After dealing extensively with this problem over the last twenty five years, always from a conservative approach using traditional methods like dilatations, we believe we have found a technique that brings together all the necessary conditions to achieve a favorable and definitive solution. Our ideal goal to achieve a device that provides a well-tolerated permanent esophageal expansion during the scarring process, also permitting normal swallowing, seems to have been reached through the use of the new generation of silicone stents. The authors present their experience in the first seven cases of caustic stenosis treatment through the placement of silicone stents, describing a precise placement technique while establishing a standard protocol for the use of these devices.