title: Self-expanding metal stents in palliative malignant oesophageal dysplasia.
abstract: Oesophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. At the time of presentation, more than half of patients with oesophageal cancer have advanced disease not eligible for curative resection. Due to this, the treatment of oesophageal malignancy is usually palliative, with the main aim to relieve dysphagia, maintain nutritional intake and occlusion of tracheoesophageal fistulas. Palliative surgery offers the optimal alleviation for oesophageal obstruction symptoms such as dysphagia and vomiting. However, due to the poor prognosis, the short survival time, the significant morbidity and mortality rate for surgical intervention, this treatment option cannot be justified to less invasive non-surgical techniques such as oesophageal stenting. Oesophageal stenting has now become the treatment option of choice for palliative oesophageal malignancy. The previously used covered plastic stents were related with high migration rates and nowadays have been superseded by self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) which comparably have significantly lower migration rates, whilst at the same time provide safe, rapid and effective symptomatic relief. Herein, we present an up to date review of the current literature regarding malignant oesophageal stenting. In particular, the authors will detail important factors in patient selection, indications, contraindications, procedural steps, complications and stent design.
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, 1st Floor Lambeth Wing, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK.
authors.forename: Aneeta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parthipun
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, 1st Floor Lambeth Wing, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diamantopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, 1st Floor Lambeth Wing, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK.
authors.forename: Aidan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, 1st Floor Lambeth Wing, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK.
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dourado
authors.affiliation: Department of Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, 1st Floor Lambeth Wing, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UK. Tarun.Sabharwal@gstt.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sabharwal
keywords: Oesophageal stent; palliative malignant dysphagia; self-expanding stents