Stent

What are Stents?

In medicine, stents are special tubular devices inserted into channels in the body—such as the esophagus, the colon and certain blood vessels in the heart—to open up passage for bodily fluids and food content or to hold open the channels during surgery. Stents are made of artificial materials engineered for in-body stent placement and only rarely cause serious health complications for the patient, though as with any foreign body without your body there is always a small risk of infection or blood clot associated with these. Stents also have a chance of migrating or slipping out of their positioned place, if this happens they are normally easily revised and replaced.  They can be used when a natural passage in a patient’s body has narrowed as a result of scarring or has become obstructed by tumors such as cancer in its advanced stages, among other circumstances.  While stents are often used to open channels inside the heart in patients with coronary heart disease or patients that have recently suffered heart attack, they are also used by gastroenterologists (GI doctors) for cancer treatment. Talk to your medical doctor if you think you may need a stent procedure to improve daily body function.

Why Would a GI Doctor Use Stents?

Within the field of gastroenterology, a GI doctor uses stents primarily to open up the bile ducts, esophagus, small bowel and colon when those body parts have become blocked by large, cancerous tissue. The stent placement procedure is meant to repair a person’s natural ability to digest food and drink anywhere along the GI tract (gastrointestinal tract), from the mouth to the anus, especially when cancer patients are having trouble swallowing, passing stool or otherwise digesting during their cancer treatment. Stents can be installed either permanently or temporarily. There are four  main types of stents used by GI doctors:

• Bile duct stents – These are either plastic or metal stents which are placed into the common bile duct (the tube connecting the liver and pancreas to the small bowel).  These stents are often placed in patients with pancreatic or cholangiocarcinoma and their function is to allow normal drainage from the pancreas, gallbladder and liver into the small bowel.  Patients who have these diseases will often develop jaundice or abdominal pain and can develop serious infection if the obstructions are not relieved.  The plastic stents are usually considered temporary and often times need revision, metal stents are more long term and may never have to be changed.
• Esophageal Stents—help to open up a patient’s esophagus and assist in swallowing food and liquid content. Usually, esophageal stents made of metal are designed to be able to expand and contract with the muscles of the esophagus—but more rigid esophageal stents made of plastic or silicone are also available when they are necessary in constricting tumors that grow in esophageal cancer patients. Esophageal stents are placed using an endoscope inserted through the patient’s mouth and guided by x-ray and endoscopy.
• Duodenal Stents—help to sustain content flow through a patient’s small bowel, near the top of the small intestine (the duodenum), when that area is blocked by cancerous tumors. Duodenal stent placement naturally requires more invasive endoscopy in order to install the stents than esophageal stent placement, but is generally preferred over surgery as a way to treat or control certain forms of small bowel obstruction.  If a duodenal stent fails to relieve the obstruction, surgrical bypass may be required to allow for passage of food and secretions.
• Colonic Stents—help to hold open points of stricture or narrowing in a patient’s colon when colorectal disease or cancer may be making it difficult for the patient to digest and to pass stool properly. Like esophageal and duodenal stents, colonic stents may help to prevent future obstruction of the GI tract as well as control existing symptoms of bowel obstruction.

 

Reviewed 12/29/2011 by David M. Nolan, M.D.
Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, 2011
Currently a Fellow of Gastroenterology, at UCI 2011-2014