Abstract
Stent placement has been widely performed in these days, but indication of this procedure is not clearly shown. In our hospital, we decided the indication as follows, 1) A patient with severe stenosis of central airway presenting dyspnea and flow limitation on flow-volume curve. 2) Prognosis shall be prolonged by stent placement. But what factors are to affect the patient's prognosis is unknown. We made a retrospective study on our 40 patients with central airway stenosis treated by air way stents. These patients include 24 lung cancer, 11 esophageal cancer, 3 thyroid cancer, 1 malignant thymoma, 1 malignant melanoma. Their age is ranged 42 to 83, and 32 male and 8 female. Their survival was compared using Kaplan-Meier method according to age, performance status after stent placement, additional therapy. As a result, the survival is significantly better in patients in good performance status (1 or 2), and patients undergone additional therapy (chemotherapy or radiotherapy). And 39 in 40 patients was treated with silicone stent. Only 3 patients was treated with metallic stent. Besides metallic stent was used combined with silicone stent in 2 cases. Silicone stent is bio-compatible and removable, and we think silicone stent should be first choice and metallic stent should be used only in cases that we can't use silicone stent.
