Mitomycin-C - A breakthrough for esophageal strictures- prospective study at a tertiary care center

Introduction: esophageal stricture is a common and horrible complication of corrosive ingestion. injury incurred by the corrosive and repeated therapeutic dilations; followed by healing,results in fibrosis and scarring and ultimately recurrence. mitomycin-c is an anti-neoplastic and anti fibroblast agent with potential to decrease fibrosis and has shown favorable results of in reducing scar formation after stricture dilation. materials & methods: this interventional case control study was carried out in the department of pediatric gastroenterology hepatology & nutrition at the children's hospital & institute of child health,lahore. post-caustic esophageal stricture patients presenting in year 2013,were included in mitomycin-c group. they were compared with a control group including patients of post-corrosive esophageal stricture presenting in year 2012. all patients underwent endoscopic balloon dilatations. outcomes in terms of symptomatic relief and numbers of dilatations required were compared between the two groups. results: total 81 patients (51 male,30 female) were included in study. out of these; 38 patients were in mitomycin-c group,while 43 were in control group. in mitomycin-c group,1.6 dilatations per patient were done; while in control group 2.67 dilatations per patient were done (p value 0.026). minimum asymptomatic interval between dilatations was increased in mitomycin-c group (p-value 0.00). conclusion: application of topical mitomycin-c after balloon dilation of post-corrosive esophageal stricture results in significantly reduced number of dilation sessions required and increases the asymptomatic period. © 2016,pakistan pediatric journal. all rights reserved.