2021 Volume 35 Issue 1 Pages 113-117
The patient was a man in his 60s with obstructive jaundice. CT and ERCP revealed that the malignant biliary obstruction was caused by a carcinoma of the pancreatic head. For treating the jaundice, we performed ERCP and inserted a 10-Fr plastic stent into the common bile duct. One month later, he was admitted for cholangitis accompanied with stent occlusion. When we performed ERCP, we detected an obstruction of the plastic stent due to tissue-ingrowth from the flap on the papillary side of the stent. Therefore, we removed the plastic stent and inserted a fully-covered metallic stent. After this procedure, the cholangitis improved.
Plastic-stent occlusion usually occurs due to sludge formation, positioning error, and/or blood clots. Plastic-stent occlusion because of tissue-ingrowth is a very rare phenomenon.
