Application of self-expanding stents in treating inoperable cancers of the oesophagus and cardia

Abstract

Background: The treatment of inoperable changes and tumors of the oesophagus and cardia is a great changes for a surgeon. How to help the patients, the medicine does not have much to offer? After the change is found to be inoperable, a nutritional fistula is usually applied in the stomach or small intestine, which significantly reduces the comfort of patient’s life. Due to the development of new medical technologies, the implantation of oesophageal stents is performed in these cases. After the patient’s qualification process, the implantation is carried out, under X-ray control. It enables normal eating in patients with severe dysphagia. Sometimes, there is a necessity of stenosis dilatation with expandable plugs or oesophageal balloons.
Material and methods: We present the outcomes of treatment of thirty seven patients, who had oesophageal stents implanted between 2002 and 2005. The indications for this procedure were: oesophagal stenosis and dysphagia in the course of inoperable tumor.
Results: During the thirty day observation after stent implantation, there were no cases of death. There was one case of stent removal. During further observation, there were several cases of occlusion with a morsel of food, and they were treated endoscopically.
Conclusions: It has to be noted, that the described treatment method can not be performed in all cases of inoperable tumors of oesophagus and cardia. Apart from medical conditions, the price of oesophageal stents can be a limitation of this procedure.