Self-expanding plastic stents used to treat benign esophageal disease do not result in long-term alleviation of symptoms, researchers here said.
What’s more, the devices migrated from their initial placement more than 60% of the time, according to Todd Baron, M.D., and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic reported in the January issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
The findings, based on a retrospective single-institution analysis, appear to contradict earlier studies that showed that the devices stayed put and resulted in improvements in symptoms, the researchers said.