Loading...
In patients with obstruction from colorectal cancer (CRC), placement of self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) can convert operations that might require two stages to single-stage procedures. SEMS are also commonly used to provide palliation from obstruction in CRC patients with widespread metastases. Reviews of SEMS for this latter purpose have suggested a perforation rate of about 4%, a stent migration risk of 10%, and a reobstruction rate of 5% to 10%. Now, investigators at a single tertiary care center in Spain have conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with malignant colonic obstruction who underwent SEMS placement during a 5-year period.
Initial SEMS placement was successful in 44 of 47 patients (94%); two of the three failures we…