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Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has several outpatient and urgent care centers throughout South Florida, including on-demand, virtual care.
Walk-in urgent care with no appointment needed.
Serving as your child's primary doctor's office.
Pediatric specialty consultations available closer to home.
A full range of comprehensive services all under one roof.
Connect with providers from the comfort of your own home.
With over 800 pediatric clinicians on staff, we’re dedicated to helping you connect with the right specialist for your needs.
We have expertise in treating children and educating families on hundreds of different conditions.
We use cutting-edge, specialized treatments and procedures to ensure the best care for your child.
Also known as: esophageal dilation.
If a patient’s esophagus is too narrow, esophageal dilatation is a procedure that can be used to stretch and open it up. This is often used if swallowing food or liquid proves to be difficult.
An X-ray is used for guidance during the procedure. As the patient lies under general anesthesia, a wire is guided through the mouth and down the esophagus. A balloon is inflated on the wire in order to stretch and open up the esophagus.
You may need to avoid food, drink or medication for a set period of time before the procedure.
Bleeding, infection, inflammation or perforation of the esophagus are potential complications of esophageal dilatation.
Reviewed by: Carrie Firestone Baum, MD
This page was last updated on: April 22, 2021 11:56 AM
The Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is dedicated to the treatment of a wide variety of gastrointestinal problems in infants, children and adolescents with a multidisciplinary approach.
Dilatation is the process of opening up a narrow body part in order to restore its function or perform a medical procedure on it.
An Esophagram is a type of X-ray that shows how well the esophagus is working and is looking to see the direction in which the food travels as its being swallowed.