Literature Analysis of the Treatment of Benign Esophageal Disease with Stent

To analyze the efficacy and safety of benign esophageal disease used biodegradable (BD) stent or metal stent. The English literatures of benign esophageal disease that were treated by biodegradable or metal stents implantation were retrieved and summarized. In all 323 benign esophageal disease, the most common etiologies were benign refractory stricture, surgical anastomotic stricture and esophageal fistula/leak/perforation, but the main characteristics between the two groups were not significantly different. One hundred fifty-four cases were completely healed by using BD stents or self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) (47.7 %). Clinical success was achieved in 47.7 % of all patients and there was no significant difference between BD stents (51 %) and SEMS (46.2 %) (P = 0.472), while stent migration occurred more frequently with SEMS (33.9 %) than with BD stent (19.6 %) (P ≤ 0.05), and tissue in- or overgrowth occurred more frequently with SEMS (22.2 %) than with BD stents (8.8 %) (P ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, the time about degradation of BD stents in esophageal was longer than removal of SEMS from the esophagus (P ≤ 0.05). Placement of BD stents or SEMS provides effective and safe relief for benign esophageal disease. Clinical success and mortality were not significantly different. BD stents offers an advantage of fewer complications. Although stent placement is a viable strategy in patients with benign esophageal disease, the ideal treatment strategy and further randomized trials with large number of patients are needed.