Clinical Practice and Safety of Endoscopic Balloon Dilation for Crohn’s Disease–Related Strictures: A Nationwide Claim Database Analysis in Japan

Introduction: Although endoscopic balloon dilation (EBD) is a common therapeutic approach for managing strictures associated with Crohn’s disease (CD), the clinical application and complication rates of EBD remain unclear. Methods: We collected admission data for patients who underwent EBD using a nationwide database. We compared EBD outcomes between ileal and colonic strictures, CD and ulcerative colitis, and CD and anastomotic strictures arising from cancer-related surgery. Subsequently, propensity score matching was employed to facilitate comparisons between each group. Results: The median duration of hospital stay was 4 days. Endoscopic hemostasis and urgent surgery rates after EBD for CD-related strictures were considerably low (0.035% and 0.11%, respectively). Most patients with CD underwent only one EBD procedure during a single admission. Although no significant differences in patient backgrounds and severe complications were observed between ileal and colonic stricture in CD, multiple EBD procedures were more commonly performed for ileal strictures than for colonic stricture. Moreover, EBD for ileal stricture was more frequently conducted in high-volume centers than in low-volume centers. Regarding severe complications after EBD, no significant differences were observed between CD-related strictures and ulcerative colitis or anastomotic strictures related to cancer surgery. Conclusion: Our findings support the safe and effective use of EBD for both ileal and colonic strictures associated with CD. The clinical practice and safety outcomes of EBD for CD-related strictures were comparable to those for strictures stemming from other etiologies.