Use of Laser in the Relief of Malignant Dysphagia: A District Hospital Experience

Abstract

Background: Endoscopic laser treatment offers rapid relief from dysphagia. The major drawback of laser therapy is the need for repeated treatment at 4- to 6-week intervals. Laser therapy is often done in tertiary referral centres and is said to require special expertise that is not available in many peripheral hospitals. For smaller centres, intubation is likely to be the only treatment option even though it gives less quality of palliation. Aim: To report the experience of a district general hospital in laser treatment of malignant dysphagia. Methods: A retrospective study on patients who had laser therapy for relief from malignant dysphagia from march 1995 to January 2000 was performed in a district general hospital in the UK. Results: Forty patients (25 males and 15 females) with histologically proven oesophageal carcinoma were unsuitable for surgical resection. Trainees, under supervision, did 20% of the sessions. Treatment was done on a day case basis with no outpatient follow-up. The patients had direct access to the service whenever dysphagia got worse. The median number of sessions per patient was 4 (range 1–13). The median palliation period per session was 7 (range 1–32) weeks. The median total palliation period was 7 months. There was no procedure-related mortality. Conclusion: Laser therapy is a safe, easy to teach and learn technique for relief from malignant dysphagia. It can be done on a day case basis with minimum need for follow-up and hospital visits. Such a service could be provided in a district general hospital set-up once equipment and experience are available, thus saving patients from having to travel to specialist units.

Clinical evaluation of mandibular implant overdentures via Locator implant attachment and Locator bar attachment

“…Meanwhile, Batenburg et al4 reported a high implant success rate in implant overdentures through a literature review. Based on such a high success rate of the implant overdentures in edentulous patients, implant overdentures have become one of the most widely recommended treatments in mandibular edentulous patients since McGill consensus5 in 2002.…”

Geriatric slim implants for complete denture wearers: clinical aspects and perspectives

“…This method of oral rehabilitation is recommended in presence of unstable complete mandibular denture 16,37,38. Patients with incompatible oral or general diseases should not be scheduled for this surgical procedure.…”

Palliative endoscopic interventions in esophageal cancer

“…Especially localized exophytic tumor-masses can be debulked in repeated sessions [9], while lesions longer than 3 cm or infiltrating tumors should not be treated by Nd:YAG laser ablation due to the increased risk of procedure-related perforation. Due to tumor re-growth the duration of dysphagia relief is limited to 4-6 weeks [7,8]. Therefore repeated sessions are scheduled at such intervals.…”

“…In addition, different endoluminal ablative treatment modalities are available such as the Nd-YAG laser [6][7][8][9], photodynamic therapy [10][11][12], Argon Plasma Coagulation [13][14][15] or intratumoral ethanol-injection [16,17]. Generally, due to high mortality [18,19] without any extended survival, palliative surgery should not be considered as adequate palliation at all.…”