• Byeong-Ho Jeong, Jeffrey Ng, Suk Hyeon Jeong, and Hojoong Kim.
• Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul 06351, Korea.
• Medicina (Kaunas). 2020 Jul 22; 56 (8).

AbstractBackground and Objectives: The use of metallic stents in benign TBS is controversial. Here, we report the clinical outcomes of patients who developed complications due to self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) insertion for benign TBS. Materials and Methods: Our institution, which is the largest and most active referral hospital for airway stenosis in South Korea, only uses silicone stents. We conducted a retrospective review of 20 patients referred after the insertion of SEMS for benign TBS from 2006 to 2015. Results: All 20 patients underwent rigid bronchoscopy for SEMS removal due to airway obstruction from granulation tissue overgrowth. All but one (95%) experienced successful removal of the SEMS. During a median follow-up period of 40 months, a median of seven rigid bronchoscopies per patient was needed to maintain airway patency. Three (15%) patients suffered acute complications during SEMS removal (bleeding (10%) and fistula (5%)). All patients suffered chronic complications (granulation tissue (80%), stent migration (58%), mucostasis (55%), and restenosis (43%)). Eventually, 15 patients (75%) needed airway prostheses (silicone stent (75%) and tracheostomy (25%)). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that SEMS should be avoided until positive results are consistently reported by high-quality studies in patients with benign TBS.

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