Magnet-assisted diverticuloplasty for treating the symptomatic esophageal diverticulum: a case series (with video)

The development of the magnetic compression technique (MCT) for the gastrointestinal (GI) tract has been widely applied in the treatment of biliary strictures, esophageal atresia, and GI anastomoses. Our team combined the MCT and minimally invasive endoscopic operation to propose a novel alternative procedure called magnet-assisted diverticuloplasty (MAD) for treating various esophageal diverticula. This case series aimed to report the effectiveness, safety, and our experience of MAD.

This retrospective case series included patients with symptomatic esophageal diverticulum (SED) who underwent MAD between November 2017 and June 2022 in West China Hospital, Sichuan University. The patients' symptomatic scores were accessed by Eckardt symptomatic scores. The telephone follow-up period ended in March 2023. The primary outcome of the study was clinical success. Secondary outcomes included the technical success of MAD, procedure time, hospitalization, recurrence, and adverse events.

We reported 6 patients with SED who underwent MAD (3 with Zenker's, 1 with middle, and 2 with lower esophageal diverticulum). The technical success rate was 100% (6/6) and no adverse events were reported. The median procedural duration was 22.5 min (interquartile range (IQR) 18.5). The mean hospitalization was 2 days (range 1-3). The median time of follow-up endoscopy was on postoperative day 18 (IQR 31), revealing a shortened diverticular septum under endoscopic examination. After a median telephone follow-up of 23 months (IQR 36), the median total symptomatic score decreased significantly from 4.00 (IQR 3.25) to 1.00 (IQR 2.00) (P = 0.015). The clinical success rate was 83.3% (5/6), and only one patient had recurrent symptoms two years after MAD.

MAD provided a novel method for treating SED. Our limited experience suggested that MAD could be minimally invasive and effective. More extensive, multicenter prospective studies were needed to assess this technique further.