Original articleGeneral thoracicLong-Term Follow-Up of Ultraflex Metallic Stents in Benign and Malignant Central Airway Obstruction
Section snippets
Patients and Methods
This was a retrospective observational study. Methodology and patient confidentiality was approved by the Audit Committee of United Bristol Healthcare Trust (our Institutional Review Board for Audit Projects). The Research Ethics Committee was also asked to review the design of the project and further confirmed that it constituted an audit, which did not require patient consent. By searching for the surgical procedure code for endobronchial stenting, we identified all patients who had been
Results
Procedure codes were used to identify 100 patients who had been treated with a stent in the period 1999 to 2003. Of these, 66 patients had been treated with one or more Ultraflex stents and were further studied. Their mean age was 64 years (range, 22 to 87 years). Malignant airway obstruction was present in 54 patients: 39 had primary carcinomas of the trachea or main bronchi, and 15 had primary tumors in other organs that had invaded or compressed the central airways or metastasized to them.
Comment
Surgery is the best treatment for benign and malignant airways obstruction, but is only possible in a few patients because of the extent of malignant disease or other medical conditions that render patients unfit for surgery. In the case of benign tracheal strictures, surgical resection and anastomosis is the ideal treatment, but even in patients otherwise fit for surgery, only some 50% of the tracheas can be resected. No satisfactory prosthesis has yet been developed that permits more
References (14)
- et al.
Stenting of the tracheobronchial tree
Radiol Clin North Am
(2000) A dedicated tracheobronchial stent
Chest
(1990)- et al.
Silicone stents in the management of benign tracheobronchial stenosesTolerance and early results in 63 patients
Chest
(1996) - et al.
A new intratracheal stent made from nitinol, an alloy with “shape memory effect.”
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
(1994) - et al.
Implantation of Ultraflex nitinol stents in malignant tracheobronchial stenoses
Chest
(2000) - et al.
Successful bronchoscopic placement of tracheobronchial stents without fluoroscopy
Chest
(2001) - et al.
Medium-term follow-up after deployment of Ultraflex expandable metallic stents to manage endobronchial pathology
Ann Thorac Surg
(2004)
Cited by (87)
Airway stenting: State of the art
2022, Revue des Maladies RespiratoiresFluoroscopy-guided removal of individualised airway-covered stents for airway fistulas
2018, Clinical Radiology