Metallic stents in benign biliary strictures: Long-term effectiveness and interventional management of stent occlusion

OBJECTIVE. The objective of our study was to evaluate the long-term effecti veness of metallic stent placement in the treatment of benign biliary stric tures and to report our experience with interventional procedures for the m anagement of stent occlusion to achieve secondary patency. CONCLUSION. The clinical course of these patients is compromised by repeate d stent occlusions, caused by stone or mucosal. hyperplasia. The results of primary stent patency are disappointing with the primary patency rate decr easing from 75% after 12 months to 25% after 36 months. The different inter ventional procedures used to restore bile flow make an important contributi on to the secondary stent patency and provide a satisfactory clinical resul t in a patient subpopulation in whom stent placement is considered the last resort.