title: Two cases of fractured esophageal nitinol stents.
abstract: We report here on two cases of fractured nitinol stents in the esophagus. In case 1, the correctly inserted stent broke spontaneously shortly after insertion. In a second case, a nitinol stent broke after laser application due to tumor ingrowth with massive bleeding. In both cases, a second stent was implanted in order to reestablish food passage. The fracture of the stent in case 1 seemed to be caused by defective material, whilst in case 2 the stent broke because of thermal overstrain during laser application. The use of electrocoagulation or laser in the stent area should therefore be avoided; argon plasma coagulation may offer an effective alternative in treating tumor ingrowth. As there was a risk from piercing broken filaments with the second stent, covering a fracture using stents with tight walls or plastic tubes seems to be a more effective approach than the inserting an uncovered stent type.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schoefl
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Winkelbauer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haefner
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Poetzi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gangl
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lammer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000497:Alloys; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000628:therapy*; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015607:Stents
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; C013616:nitinol