BENIGN MUCOUS-MEMBRANE PEMPHIGOID - TREATMENT OF ESOPHAGEAL STRICTURE

The authors describe a 35-year-old man who has had benign mucous membr ane pemphigoid from the age of 12 years. Upper esophageal stricture, a rare complication of the syndrome, developed when he was 24 years old . This recurrent condition has been followed for 11 years. It was trea ted initially, for 6 years, with esophagoscopy and bougie dilatation. Balloon dilatation under fluoroscopic guidance was then substituted fo r bougienage; this procedure has been performed successfully 10 times over the last 5 years and remains the patient's preferred treatment. T he mean period for recurrence of symptoms has been 5 months. Several p revious reports of this condition describe treatment with esophagoscop y and bougie dilatation, but there has been no previous report of inte rventional radiology with balloon dilatation.