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Group | Mechanisms | Advantages | Disadvantages and limitations |
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Pharmacological treatment | Steroid | Anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic formation, antiscar formation | Effective in many small comparative clinical studies | Hard to prevent stricture in patients with circumferential esophageal mucosal defects, systematic side effects (peptic ulcers, immune suppression metabolic disturbances, and psychiatric symptoms), and delayed wound healing |
Antifibrotic drug | Inhibit the proliferation of fibrous scars | Antifibrotic effect | No randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews with sufficient evidence |
Esophageal stent treatment | Esophageal self-expandable stents | Expand the esophagus | Persistently expand the esophagus, easily to be removed at any time | Adverse reactions (bleeding, chest pain, esophageal perforation, and stent migration), high recurrence after stent removal, and long-term effects were unknown |
Biodegradable stents | Expand the esophagus | Expand the esophagus, no need to remove | No randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews with sufficient evidence |
Tissue engineering approaches | Extracellular matrix scaffold | Support the growth of epithelial cells, promote esophageal structure remodeling | Support tissue, enhance mucosal healing and structure remodeling | Potential safety problem, no randomized controlled trials, or systematic reviews with sufficient evidence |
Cell-based therapy | Promote reepithelialization and scarless wound healing | Reepithelialization, enhancement of mucosal healing and structure remodeling, great potential for development | Complicated technique, high cost, large-sample controlled trial, and long-term follow-up research are needed |
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