Gastrointestinal stents

Gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies affect many people with constantly growing incidence. Surgical resection is only possible in about 20-30% of overall patient population with GI malignancies with the hope of cure. The rest of the patients might develop obstruction of hollow organs during the course of their disease, which may require palliative procedure or intervention. This could be surgical or less invasive endoscopic or percutaneous solution with some sort of plastic or metal stent insertion. The oncological use of GI stents is summarised in this paper, specifi cally elaborating their use in oesophageal, gastric-duodenal, colorectal and bile duct malignant obstructions.