Laser palliation of inoperable malignant dysphagia: initial and at death

Endoscopic photodynamic therapy for obstructing esophageal cancer: 77 cases over a 2-year period

“…The mean tumor length was 6.2 ± 2.8 cm (range, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Tumor location was in the upper esophagus in 10 patients, mid-esophagus in 13 patients, and distal esophagus in 54 patients.…”

“…The two methods most frequently used for the palliation of malignant dysphagia are Nd:YAG laser treatment and expandable metal stents. Bourke reported effective palliation of malignant dysphagia in 96% of 70 consecutive patients treated with Nd:YAG laser [3]. In their series, 73% of patients remained free of dysphagia until death.…”

“…In their series, 73% of patients remained free of dysphagia until death. Complications of laser therapy included perforation (1.4%), retrosternal chest pain (6%), and bleeding (3%) [3].…”

Role of self-expandable metal stents in the palliation of malignant duodenal obstruction

“…However, in patients with malignant gastric outlet/duodenal obstruction who often have poor performance status, palliative surgical intervention is associated with an increase in mortality and morbidity [20,40]. Alternative therapies include endoscopic palliation with feeding tubes, percutaneous gastrostomy, and ablative therapies such as neodynium-yttrium-aluminum garnet (Nd-Yag) laser, bipolar cautery, injection techniques, and photodynamic therapy [1,6,19,24,25,27,30,34,35,37,47,55].…”

Cost-Effectiveness of Palliation of Unresectable Esophageal Cancer

“…Unfortunately, dysphagia recurrence is almost invariably universal. Repetitive laser treatments are commonly needed for life, and not infrequently more than one form of treatment has to be utilized [7]. SES is easy to insert and very effective in improving dysphagia [4,8,9].…”