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Use of drug-eluting metal biliary stents in gastroenterology has been eagerly anticipated for more than 20 years, but despite interest, these devices have failed to materialize for routine clinical practice. To assess efficacy and safety of the drug-eluting stent with an eye to evaluating patency rates, investigators in Korea conducted a prospective, randomized study of a metal biliary stent impregnated with a chemotherapeutic agent in patients with malignant biliary obstruction.
The authors randomized 106 patients with unresectable, malignant distal biliary obstruction to receive a covered paclitaxel-eluting metal biliary stent or a similar covered metal biliary stent that did not release paclitaxel. Patients could still undergo systemic ch…