Symptomatic improvement in dyspnea following tracheobronchial metallic stenting for malignant airway obstruction.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the value and limitation of Gianturco expandable metallic stenting for patients with dyspnea due to stenotic tracheobronchial lesions associated with malignancies.


METHODS
We treated 55 lesions of 44 patients with obstructing stenotic tracheobronchial lesions related to end-stage malignancies by Gianturco expandable metallic stents (EMSs).


RESULTS
In 42 of 44 patients, the dyspnea subjectively improved after the procedure (95.5%). An improvement over one grade of the Hugh-Jones classification was shown in 79.5% (35/44); in 80% (20 of 25 patients) with intraluminal tumor and in 78.9% (15 of 19 patients) with extrinsic compression. Seven of the 44 patients developed dyspnea related to re-stenosis of 10 lesions and 1 of these patients developed dyspnea related to re-re-stenosis during follow-up. The mean duration of survival was 4.3 months in patients who underwent stenting. No significant differences in survival rates and primary patency rates were seen in patients with extrinsic compression compared to patients with intraluminal tumors.


CONCLUSIONS
Gianturco EMS therapy was valuable in patients who suffered from dyspnea due to airway stenosis causing obstruction.
Tanigawa
N
N
Department of Radiology at Kansai Medical University, Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan.
Sawada
S
S
Okuda
Y
Y
Kobayashi
M
M
Mishima
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D001982:Bronchial Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D001984:Bronchial Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D002404:Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000628:therapy*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care; D012008:Recurrence; D013193:Stainless Steel; D015607:Stents; D015996:Survival Rate; D014134:Tracheal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D014135:Tracheal Stenosis / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D013193:Stainless Steel