Oesophageal stricture and dysphagia after endoscopic sclerotherapy for bleeding varices

Oesophageal stricture and dysphagia after endoscopic sclerotherapy of oesophageal varices were assessed with regard to occurrence and severity and the relation to the treatment. We followed 34 patients for three to 47 months who had two to 25 treatments with submucosal, paravenous injections of polidocanol (3%). Twenty patients (59%) developed stricture or dysphagia; 14 both dysphagia and endoscopically verified stricture, two dysphagia without stricture, and four stricture without dysphagia. Both phenomena occurred intermittently and often independent of each other, but occupied median 38% of the observation time in these 20 patients. The patients developing strictures had received significantly more treatments and greater amount of sclerosant, and they had significantly more preceding mucosal necroses. The varices were eradicated to about the same degree and the incidence of recurrent haemorrhage was the same as in the patients who had not developed stricture.