Short- and long-term efficacy of endoscopic balloon dilation in Crohn’s disease strictures

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of the study cohort

Clinical characteristics of the study cohort (n = 26)	Data
Gender distribution (n)
Male	11
Female	15
Pediatric/adult patients distribution (n)
Pediatric	3
Adult	23
CD indexes of activity (mean ± SE)
PCDAI (n = 3)	38 ± 7.2
CDAI (n = 23)	365 ± 75
Ongoing medical therapy (n)
Azathioprine	20
Azathioprine + Infliximab	6
Mean age at the time of the CD diagnosis (yr)	22.9 ± 2.8
[mean ± SE (range)]	(2-50)
Mean age at the time of the occurrence of the first stricture (yr)	36.8 ± 3.6
[mean ± SE (range)]	(11-65)

CD: Crohn’s disease; PCDAI: Pediatric Crohn’s disease activity index; CDAI: Crohn’s disease activity index.

Table 2 Clinical characteristics of Crohn’s disease-related strictures

Stricture characteristics (n = 27)	Data
Nature of the stricture (n)
Naive	12
Post-surgical	15
Location of the stricture (n)
Upper gastrointestinal	1
Small intestine	2
Ileo-colonic	14
Colonic	10
Mean length (cm) [mean ± SE (range)]	4.6 ± 0.4 (2-12)
≤ 4 cm (n)	15
> 4 cm (n)	12
Mean diameter (mm) [mean ± SE (range)]	2.5 ± 0.2 (1-6)
≤ 5 mm (n)	26
> 5 mm (n)	1
Stricture associated fistula (n)
Yes	5
No	22

Table 3 Analyses of the influence of the clinical variables on the occurrence of surgery

Variables	No surgery (n)	Surgery (n)	P value
Male sex	10	1	NS
Adult patients	21	2	NS
Naive strictures	10	2	NS
Moderate disease activity	12	2	NS
Strictures length > 4 cm	11	1	NS
Strictures diameters ≤ 5 mm	24	2	NS
Strictures with fistula	3	2	0.002
Strictures at the ileocecal level	3	2	0.002
Pharmacological therapy (azathioprine)	18	2	NS

NS: Not significant.