[Analysis of clinical application for various types of esophageal stents made in China]

Dysphagia is the main clinical symptom of the patients with esophageal carcinoma. The stent placement in esophagus is an effective method to resolve dysphagia.There are many types of stents. Through comparing observation of the stents made in China, which is the stainless steel "Z" stent, the Ni-Ti wire mesh-like stent, and the covered or uncovered-stent, the authors analyzed the clinical application of various types of esophageal stents in the treatment of malignant esophageal stricture.

The various types of esophageal stents were implanted into 40 patients with esophageal carcinoma. 13 cases for stainless steel "Z" stents, 27 cases for Ni-Ti wire mesh-like stents(24 cases were the covered stents and 16 cases were uncovered). All the patients were not operated with the dilation of balloon before stent placement.

The esophageal stents were successfully implanted into 40 patients without complication of operation. Stainless steel "Z" stent were all dilated immediately at the time of operation, and all the 13 patients had obvious intra-breastbone pain after operation, which lasted 10-20 days. Although Ni-Ti wire mesh-like stents could not dilate completely in operation, all these can be dilated completely after 1 to 3 days; nine cases of them had obvious intra-breastbone pain, which lasted 3-5 days. In all these, 7 cases were the covered-stents and 2 cases uncovered. In 9 cases, tracheoesophageal fistulas were blocked completely. There was barium sulphate retention between the covered-stent implanted to the patients without tracheoesophageal fistula and the dilated esophagus.

The clinical adaptability of the Ni-Ti wire mesh-like stent is better than that of the stainless steel "Z" stent. For the patients with tracheoesophageal fistula, the first choice is covered-stent, while for the patients without tracheoesophageal fistula, uncovered-stent is better. The dilation of balloon is not necessary before the stent placement.