Evolving Management of Zenker’s Diverticulum in the Endoscopic Era: A North American Experience
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Open surgical cricopharyngeal myotomy(CM) is considered standard of care for Zenker's diverticulum(ZD). Trans-oral CM has been described using a rigid stapling device for two decades; however, this remains problematic for severely kyphotic patients. This problem can be overcome with flexible endoscopy utilizing an electrosurgical needle knife. We sought to compare clinical outcomes between these techniques to stratify patient selection. METHODS: Patients undergoing ZD treatment from 1992 to 2015 were reviewed. Demographics, diverticulum size, post-operative complications, and length of stay (LOS) were compared between open cricopharyngeal myotomy (OpenCM), rigid trans-oral stapling myotomy (RigidCM), and flexible endoscopic myotomy (FlexCM). Dysphagia scores (DS, 0:best-4:worst) and pneumonia incidence were assessed pre-operatively and post-operatively. RESULTS: 62 patients underwent OpenCM (39/62(63 %)) or endoscopic CM (23/62(37 %) (8 RigidCM/15 FlexCM)). CM significantly reduced dysphagia for all approaches [OpenCM:2(2-3)-0(0-0); RigidCM:2(2-2)-0(0-0); FlexCM:3(3-3)-0(0-0)]. FlexCM patients had significantly worse pre-operative DS. Endoscopic CM was attempted and completed in 23/35(66 %) patients. Reasons for OpenCM conversion included inability to position the diverticular retractor due to patient body habitus (RigidCM), and the inability to position the overtube due to small ZD (FlexCM). Major post-operative complications were rare and similar in all groups. Medium-to-long-term post-myotomy pneumonia was comparable between groups. LOS (days) was reduced for FlexCM (1(1-2)) versus RigidCM (3(2-6)) and OpenCM (4(3-7)). CONCLUSIONS: CM is highly effective for treating ZD. Open and endoscopic approaches offer comparable outcomes and dysphagia resolution. FlexCM is efficacious for large ZD and can be performed in most patients irrespective of body habitus. FlexCM represents an excellent approach for large ZD, while OpenCM should be reserved for small ZD for which an overtube cannot be positioned.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".