Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2018; 10(1): 45-50
Published online Jan 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i1.45
Management of endoscopic biliary stenting for choledocholithiasis: Evaluation of stent-exchange intervals
Gen Tohda, Masaki Dochin
Gen Tohda, Masaki Dochin, Department of Gastroenterology, Fukui Kosei Hospital, Fukui 918-8537, Japan
Author contributions: Tohda G wrote the manuscript and analyzed the data; Dochin M reviewed the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and was reviewed ethically and approved by the Fukui Kosei Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All patients involved in this study gave their written informed consent about disclosure of their protected medical information.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest relevant to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gen Tohda, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Fukui Kosei Hospital, Shimo-rokujyo 201, Fukui 918-8537, Japan. gtoda@koseikaigroup.jp
Telephone: +81-776-413377 Fax: +81-776-413372
Received: October 15, 2017
Peer-review started: October 24, 2017
First decision: November 23, 2017
Revised: November 30, 2017
Accepted: December 6, 2017
Article in press: December 7, 2017
Published online: January 16, 2018
Processing time: 84 Days and 1.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Adequate management of plastic stents for choledocholithiasis was evaluated. Stent exchange was carried out at every 6 mo (Group A), every 12 mo (Group B) or on demand (Group C). The stent patency rates were 91.4% for Group A and 88.6% for Group B, respectively. In Group C, median stent patency was 16.3 mo, and stent exchange was required in 70.6% of patients. There was no biliary-related mortality. Although 12 mo is considered a safe interval for plastic stent exchange, long-term biliary stenting can be an acceptable option for selected patients who are medically unfit for further invasive procedures.