Original articleClinical endoscopyA fully-covered stent (Alimaxx-E) for the palliation of malignant dysphagia: a prospective follow-up study
Section snippets
Patients and methods
Between March 2006 and January 2007, all consecutive patients with dysphagia due to esophageal or gastric cardia cancer who met the inclusion and did not meet the exclusion criteria of the study and gave informed consent were treated with an Alimaxx-E stent. Inclusion criteria included an inoperable malignant obstruction of the esophagus or gastric cardia, or recurrent dysphagia after prior radiation with curative or palliative intent for esophageal or gastric cardia cancer. A tumor was
Clinical characteristics
Clinical characteristics of 45 patients treated with an Alimaxx-E stent are shown in Table 1. The length of the tumor was longer for patients treated with the Alimaxx-E GW system (mean 7.7 cm; SD 1.8) than for those treated with the Alimaxx-E DV system (mean 6.4 cm; SD 2.2 [P =.04]). All other characteristics were not different between the 2 introduction systems.
Procedural characteristics
In total, 22 patients were treated with the Alimaxx-E GW system and 23 with the Alimaxx-E DV system (Table 2). In 11 of 23 (48%)
Discussion
In this prospective follow-up series of 45 patients treated with an Alimaxx-E stent for dysphagia due to inoperable carcinoma of the esophagus or gastric cardia, we showed that this new stent design provided good symptomatic relief of malignant dysphagia. Placement of an Alimaxx-E stent was also safe and was not associated with a higher incidence of complications compared with those found in previous studies with other stent designs, ie, Niti-S stents, Polyflex stents, and Ultraflex stents.4, 5
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Cited by (68)
Performance and Predictors of Migration of Partially and Fully Covered Esophageal Self-Expanding Metal Stents for Malignant Dysphagia
2021, Clinical Gastroenterology and HepatologyPalliation of malignant esophageal obstruction using an anti-migration self-expandable metal stent: Results of a prospective multicenter study
2021, Clinics and Research in Hepatology and GastroenterologyCitation Excerpt :As a late event, pain was mostly present in middle and lower/EGJ tumors, and was considered due to tumor disease progression rather than a stent related AE. In previously published prospective studies with different types of FCSEMS, migration rates ranged from 6% to 35% in malignant dysphagia [10–12,21–24]. In our series stent migration occurred in 7 out of 53 (13%) patients.
Endoscopic management of esophageal strictures
2017, Gastrointestinal EndoscopyEfficacy and safety of a new fully covered self-expandable non-foreshortening metal esophageal stent
2014, Gastrointestinal EndoscopyManagement of inoperable malignant oesophageal strictures with fully covered wallflex® stent: A multicentre prospective study
2014, Digestive and Liver DiseaseCitation Excerpt :These favourable migration rates are likely the result of the new design of the stent, i.e., internal covering and a double-funnel shape that stabilizes it in the stricture [7–9,24]. As expected from the fully covered stent design, we did not observe any case of tissue ingrowth [13,20], whilst our rate of tissue overgrowth is comparable to the rates reported with fully covered SEMS or fully covered self expandable plastic stents, which range between 0% and 38% [12–14,18,22–24], and to previous experiences with the WallFlex® stent which ranged from 0% to 19% [7–9]. Four of these patients were successfully treated with either APC [12] or placement of a second stent [10,12], while one refused further treatment and the other was left untreated for critical clinical conditions.
DISCLOSURE: All authors disclosed no financial relationships relevant to this publication.
Presented at Digestive Disease Week, May 17-22, 2008, San Diego, California (Gastrointest Endosc 2008:67:AB250).