Significant symptomatic relief after transoral endoscopic staple-assisted treatment of XXXX .

@entity1 @entity15809 @entity1282
BACKGROUND: @entity15809 is associated with characteristic symptoms of progressive @entity1282 and regurgitation. As most @entity1 are elderly, the perioperative risk is usually high. We report our clinical experience with the transoral endoscopic staple-assisted method, including a thorough assessment of the symptomatic relief achieved by the procedure. METHODS: 46 consecutive @entity1 (29 m, 17 f) with a median age of 61 years (range, 37-96 years) were treated between 1997 and 2002. The symptoms and their frequency were registered. The follow-up consisted of clinical and radiographic investigations. RESULTS: The median size of the diverticulum was 4 cm (range, 2-12 cm). Transoral treatment was successful in 39 @entity1 ; in 7 cases (15.2%) a switch to open surgery was required. The median operating time was 30 min (range, 10-150 min). Mortality rate was nil, while morbidity was 7.7%. The median duration of the postoperative hospital stay was 5 days (range, 1-65 days). After a median follow-up of 11 months (range, 1-40 months), 5 @entity1 had been reoperated on endoscopically due to clinical recurrence. Clinical symptoms were significantly reduced ( @entity1282 of liquids p <or= 0.0001, @entity1282 of solids p <or= 0.001, regurgitation p <or= 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results confirm that minimal invasive treatment of @entity15809 is a safe method and provides significant symptomatic relief.
