[Endoscopic stenting for patients with malignant colorectal obstruction in our hospital]

In January 2012, the Wall Flex Colonic Stent (Boston Scientific) for treating patients with malignant colorectal obstruction was included in the National Health Insurance (NHI) price list in Japan, and since July 2012, our hospital has placed this stent in 22 patients(as bridge-to-surgery [BTS] in 14 patients and as palliative treatment in 8 patients). The subjects included 13 men and 9 women, aged 27-94 years. The placement sites were the ileocecal lesion in 1 patient, the ascending colon in 1 patient, the transverse colon in 3 patients, the descending colon in 6 patients, the sigmoid colon in 4 patients, and the rectum in 7 patients. Stent placement was successful in all 22 patients (100%). The primary endpoint was improvement in scores on the ColoRectal Obstruction Scoring System (CROSS). The mean CROSS score before stenting was 1.18. The mean CROSS score after stenting was 3.71. Only 1 patient showed no change in the CROSS score(before versus after stenting). The rate of clinical efficacy was 95.4%. One patient experienced restenosis, an accidental event, requiring re-stenting after 3 days. There was 1 case of stent migration, which occurred 32 days after stenting. Colonic stent placement, as BTS and palliative treatment, is effective in improving the quality of life (QOL) of patients.