Self-expanding esophageal stents: A critical evaluation

Self-expanding esophageal stents have been recently introduced in the palliative treatment of malignant esophageal strictures. These devices, initially developed for strictures of arteries, veins, urethers and biliary tract, have been adapted to the upper digestive tract. Since June 1993, we positioned 13 self-expanding stents of 4 different models in 10 patients with a stricture of the upper digestive tract. All patients were followed until death with a median follow-up of 4 months. In the present paper, the technical problems related to prosthesis positioning, the advantages compared to the traditional tubes, the costs/benefit ratio, and the early and late results of the different stents are critically evaluated.