Clinical trial NCT03125733: A New Treatment for Zenker's Diverticulum-submucosal Tunneling Endoscopic Septum Division
Official title: A Prospective International Multicenter Study on the Efficacy and Safety of Submucosal Tunneling Endoscopic Septum Division (STESD) for the Treatment of Zenker's Diverticulum
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Zenker Diverticulum
Keywords: Endoscopy, Digestive system
Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery
Therapeutic
Complications
Lead sponsor: Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Winthrop University Hospital
First posted: 2017-04-24
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: Zenker's Diverticulum (ZD) is a sac-like outpouching of the lining of the esophageal wall at the upper esophagus. It is a rare disease typically seen in the middle-aged and older adults. Common symptoms of the disease include difficulties in swallowing (dysphagia), food reflux (regurgitation), unpleasant breath smells (halitosis) and couch, choking and hoarseness etc. (respiratory complications). Pills lodging in the sac and thus unable to take effect is also a common and yet often overlooked problem.

Traditional treatment for ZD included open resection done by head and neck surgeons and direct septum division done by ENT doctors. Septum division done by endoscopists is a new modality of treatment and so far has used the same approach as the ENT doctors-the wall between the sac and the normal esophageal lumen (the septum) is cut down directly so that food will not be held in the sac.

A cutting-edge endoscopic treatment for ZD is now emerging. In this approach, what we call submucosal tunneling endoscopic septum division (STESD), the wall is not cut directly, but inside a tunnel created by lifting the wallpaper (the mucosa lining the esophageal wall). After the muscle septum is completely cut, the mucosa is then sealed by clips, restoring integrity of the esophageal lining.

The advantage of STESD is twofold. First, the esophageal mucosa will be sealed after the operation, so that the chance of extravasation of luminal content with its relevant complications will be smaller. Second, under the protection of the tunnel, the endoscopist will be able to cut the septum completely down to its bottom, ensuring a more satisfactory symptom resolution. In short, our hypothesis is that treating Zenker's diverticulum by the tunneling endoscopic technique should be both safer and more effective than traditional methods.

Detailed description: Patients with symptomatic Zenker's diverticulum are considered for STESD. The diagnosis is based on clinical presentation, barium swallow, EGD and a swallow test to rule out other possible disorders causing cervical dysphagia. A scoring system (Costamagna, GIE, 2016) is used to evaluate severity of the symptoms. Four symptoms are evaluated: 1) dysphagia, 2) regurgitation, 3) daytime respiratory symptoms and 4) nighttime respiratory symptoms. These are scored based on a solid food diet according to the symptom frequency calculated within 2 consecutive weeks: 0-never, 1-1day/ week, 2-2\~4days/ week, 3-≥5 days/ week. Under EGD and barium swallow test, configuration of the diverticulum is documented in detail (Shou-Jiang Tang, Laryngoscope, 2008). Quality of life is assessed using the SF-36 form. The pre- and post-STESD symptom score, quality of life score, and diverticulum configuration are compared.

Adverse events are recorded and graded according to the system suggested by the ASGE workshop (Cotton, GIE, 2010).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Diagnosis of Zenker's diverticulum by symptoms, esophagram and/ or EGD
* Symptomatic score≥2 in any of the symptoms or ≥3 in total
* Patients or legal surrogates willing and competent to give informed consent and to comply with follow up visits and tests

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients with minimal symptoms (score ≤1 in all four symptoms and \<3 in total)
* Presence of coagulopathy or pregnancy
* Patients who, in the investigator's opinion, are medically unstable or have a life expectancy of\< 2 years, are unable to give informed consent or have poor compliance with follow-up, or whose risks of participating in the study outweigh the benefits

Primary outcomes:
measure: Short-term change of symptom score
timeFrame: 1 months after STESD
measure: Peri-operative adverse events
timeFrame: start of STESD to 30 days post-op
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Mid-term change of symptom score
timeFrame: 12 months after STESD
measure: Change of diverticulum size under EGD
timeFrame: 1 months after STESD
measure: Change of diverticulum size under esophagram
timeFrame: 1 months after STESD
measure: Call for other treatments, such as repeat myotomy
timeFrame: 12 months after STESD
Other outcomes:
measure: Changes in quality of life score
timeFrame: Baseline and 12 months after STESD
Locations:
city: Mineola
country: United States
facility: NYU Winthrop Hospital
state: New York
city: Shanghai
country: China
facility: Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University
state: Shanghai
Study officials:
affiliation: Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
name: Ping-Hong Zhou, MD,PhD
role: STUDY_CHAIR
affiliation: NYU Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, NY, USA
name: Stavros N Stavropoulos, MD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Costamagna G, Iacopini F, Bizzotto A, Familiari P, Tringali A, Perri V, Bella A. Prognostic variables for the clinical success of flexible endoscopic septotomy of Zenker's diverticulum. Gastrointest Endosc. 2016 Apr;83(4):765-73. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2015.08.044. Epub 2015 Sep 3.
citation: Tang SJ, Jazrawi SF, Chen E, Tang L, Myers LL. Flexible endoscopic clip-assisted Zenker's diverticulotomy: the first case series (with videos). Laryngoscope. 2008 Jul;118(7):1199-205. doi: 10.1097/MLG.0b013e31816e2eee.
citation: Cotton PB, Eisen GM, Aabakken L, Baron TH, Hutter MM, Jacobson BC, Mergener K, Nemcek A Jr, Petersen BT, Petrini JL, Pike IM, Rabeneck L, Romagnuolo J, Vargo JJ. A lexicon for endoscopic adverse events: report of an ASGE workshop. Gastrointest Endosc. 2010 Mar;71(3):446-54. doi: 10.1016/j.gie.2009.10.027. No abstract available.
citation: Gutschow CA, Hamoir M, Rombaux P, Otte JB, Goncette L, Collard JM. Management of pharyngoesophageal (Zenker's) diverticulum: which technique? Ann Thorac Surg. 2002 Nov;74(5):1677-82; discussion 1682-3. doi: 10.1016/s0003-4975(02)03931-0.
citation: Ferreira LE, Simmons DT, Baron TH. Zenker's diverticula: pathophysiology, clinical presentation, and flexible endoscopic management. Dis Esophagus. 2008;21(1):1-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1442-2050.2007.00795.x.
citation: Law R, Katzka DA, Baron TH. Zenker's Diverticulum. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2014 Nov;12(11):1773-82; quiz e111-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2013.09.016. Epub 2013 Sep 18.
citation: Li QL, Chen WF, Zhang XC, Cai MY, Zhang YQ, Hu JW, He MJ, Yao LQ, Zhou PH, Xu MD. Submucosal Tunneling Endoscopic Septum Division: A Novel Technique for Treating Zenker's Diverticulum. Gastroenterology. 2016 Dec;151(6):1071-1074. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2016.08.064. Epub 2016 Sep 21. No abstract available.
citation: Vigneswaran Y, Tanaka R, Gitelis M, Carbray J, Ujiki MB. Quality of life assessment after peroral endoscopic myotomy. Surg Endosc. 2015 May;29(5):1198-202. doi: 10.1007/s00464-014-3793-2. Epub 2014 Sep 24.