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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2015; 7(1): 45-52
Published online Jan 16, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i1.45
Published online Jan 16, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i1.45
Self-expandable metal stents for achalasia: Thinking out of the box!
Athanasios D Sioulas, Chrysoula Malli, George D Dimitriadis, Konstantinos Triantafyllou, Hepatogastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine and Research Institute, Attikon University General Hospital, Medical School, Athens University, 12462 Haidari, Greece
Author contributions: Sioulas AD searched the literature, drafted and finally approved the manuscript; Malli C searched the literature, reviewed the draft and finally approved the manuscript; Dimitriadis GD reviewed the draft and finally approved the manuscript; Triantafyllou K conceived the idea, reviewed the draft and finally approved the manuscript.
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: Konstantinos Triantafyllou, Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology, Hepatogastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine and Research Institute, Attikon University General Hospital, Rimini 1, 12462 Haidari, Greece. ktriant@med.uoa.gr
Telephone: +30-210-5832090 Fax: +30-210-5326422
Received: August 22, 2014
Peer-review started: August 22, 2014
First decision: September 16, 2014
Revised: October 4, 2014
Accepted: November 7, 2014
Article in press: November 10, 2014
Published online: January 16, 2015
Peer-review started: August 22, 2014
First decision: September 16, 2014
Revised: October 4, 2014
Accepted: November 7, 2014
Article in press: November 10, 2014
Published online: January 16, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Recommended treatment of patients with achalasia are associated with significant clinical relapse over subsequent months or years. Therefore, numerous innovative techniques are under evaluation. Self-expandable metal stents may represent a promising alternative according to initial studies. They may gain a place in the therapeutic algorithm of achalasia in the view of its different types and stages, patients’ characteristics and other emerging modalities.