Dilation of malignant esophageal stenosis to allow EUS guided fine-needle aspiration: safety and effect on patient management

Background: Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) with fine-needle aspiration id entifies patients with esophageal cancer who are unlikely to be cured by su rgery. In approximately 30% of patients the staging procedure cannot be com pleted without dilation of an obstructing tumor. Methods: All EUS examinations for esophageal cancer requiring dilation from July 1995 to December 1998 were included. Yield was defined as newly diagn osed metastatic (celiac lymph nodes) or locally invasive disease that could not have been detected without dilation. Results: EUS was performed in 132 patients. Forty-two (32%) required 44 dil ations, No complications occurred. Of the 42 patients with obstruction, 18 (43%) had celiac adenopathy of which 7 had malignant cells confirmed histol ogically, 3 had benign adenopathy, and 8 did not undergo fine-needle aspira tion due to T4 stage disease (5) or intervening vessels (3), Two patients w ere upstaged after successful dilation from T2 N1 Mx to T4 N1 Mx and from T 3 Nx Mx to T3 N1 M1. Overall, dilation allowed detection of advanced diseas e in 8 of 42 (19%) patients. Dilation to 11 to 12.8 mm was insufficient (36 % success rate) to complete EUS compared with dilation to 14 to 16 mm (87%, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Dilation of obstructing esophageal tumors allows identification of a large number of patients with advanced stage malignancy. Dilation to 14 to 16 mm is sufficient for complete staging in almost all patients.