THE PROBLEMS OF EXPANDABLE METALLIC STENT FOR THE TREATMENT OF SUBGLOTTIC TRACHEAL AND TRACHEOSTOMAL STENOSIS

성문하 기관 및 기관누공 협착증에 대한 팽창성 금속 스텐트의 문제점

To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of expandable metallic stents, the stents were implanted under endoscopic guidance with local anesthesia or general anesthesia for maintenance of the constructed subglottic space of trachea. The nine patients with respiration difficulty were subjected for expandable stents. The stenosis of upper airway were due to the framework problem of subglottic trachea and tracheostoma after total laryngectomy. Stents were constructed of 0.4 m stainless steel win in a zigzag configuration of 8 bends. A single stent was 20 m in diameter when fully expanded and 20 mm long. The stents were placed accurately to the stenotic site and followed to the 5 month after stent placement. The stenotic area became narrowed with overgrowing of granuloma in all patients and the metallic stents were removed and the stenotic area reconstructed surgically. As conclusion, this technique for the treatment of the subglottic trachea showed simple and safe, but highly recurred due to overgrowing of granuloma. We suggest that the expandable metallic stent is not encouraging in this study.