Covered metallic stent placement in the management of cervical esophageal strictures.

Purpose: To describe the authors' experience with self-expandable covered metallic stents in 16 patients with malignant and benign cervical esophageal strictures.

Materials And Methods: Sixteen expandable covered metallic stents were placed with fluoroscopic guidance in 16 patients (14 men, two women; mean age, 60 years; age range, 26-75 years) with malignant and benign strictures of the cervical esophagus. The causes of strictures were ingestion of corrosive agents (n = 3), biopsy-proved squamous cell carcinoma (n = 12), and postsurgical scarring (n = 1).

Fate of migrated esophageal and gastroduodenal stents: experience in 70 patients.

Purpose: To investigate the frequency of esophageal and gastroduodenal stent migration and the fate of such stents.

Materials And Methods: The authors studied five types of covered metal stents. Type A stents were nonretrievable polyurethane-covered stents with shouldered ends (n = 169), type B stents were retrievable polyurethane-covered stents with shouldered ends (n = 62), type C stents were retrievable polyurethane-covered stents with flared ends (n = 72), type D stents were retrievable polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stents with shouldered ends (n = 369), and type E stents were separated stents (n = 216).