[Esophageal stents]

The method of oesophageal stents application using a surgical procedure via gastrotomy for otherwise surgically unmanageable malignant stenoses of the oesophagus and the gastric cardia, has been used for several decades. Once the self-expandible endoprostheses, applied under either the endoscopical or radiological (RTG) control, or both, and following a change in the oesophageal malignities treatment strategy, the spectrum of indication groups of the patients, who would undergo the stent implantation, have enlarged. Recently, thank to the endoscopically removable endoprostheses, the authors broaden the spectrum of use to benign findings of the oesophageus and the gastric cardia (strictures, perforations, insuficiency of anastomoses), as well. In their work, the authors present a group of patients who have had the oesophageal stent, using the endoscopic method, implanted at the Surgical Clinic of the Faculty Hospital in Plzen since 1992.