Abstract
Benign tracheal stenosis in adult patients may occur as a complication of intubation, tracheostomy or surgical procedure. Silicone airway stenting has opened up a new way to treat patients with post-intubation stenosis.We investigated the clinical efficacy through a review of patients with post-intubation stenosis who underwent consecutive Natural silicone stent.
Between January 2005 and December 2009, 19 patients underwent ballooning, ablation using electro-surgical unit, or bougienation by rigid bronchoscopy, followed by placement of the Natural stent. All patients reported subjective symptomatic relief immediately after stent placement. Spirometry data was collected at baseline, 3 month, and 24 month. The baseline and follow-up spirometry data was available in 11 patient. The baseline median FEV1% predicted was 40% (range, 22% to 62%). Follow-up spirometry data showed 37% improvement (range, 19% to 74%) at 3 month later, and 41% improvement (range, 21% to 77%) at 24 month later:
The Natural stent were removed successfully in 10 patients (52.6%) after median of 16months. Other 5 patients (26.3%) were required re-stenting, and 4 patients died due to acute pulmonary edema with ESRD, myocardial infarction, intracranial hemorrhage.The Natural silicone stent proved to be effective and feasible therapeutic modality in improving quality of life with relief of dyspnea.
- © 2011 ERS
