Self-expandable metal stents for achalasia: Thinking out of the box!

Table 1 Published series using self-expandable metallic stents for achalasia treatment

Ref.	Coppola et al[43](2014)	Zeng et al[42](2014)	Cheng et al[41](2010)	Zhao et al[40](2009)	De Palma et al[36](2001)	Mukherjee et al[37](2000)	De Palma et al[35](1998)
Baseline characteristics and effectiveness
Patients, n	7	59	90	75	8	4	4
SEMS diameter, mm	30	20/25	20/25/30	30	18	18/20	18
Time to removal, d	6	30	4-5	3-7	?	?	?
Technical success, %	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Initial remission, %	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Major complications
Stent migration, n	0	4	14	4	4	1	0
Perforation, n	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Bleeding, n	0	0	14	9	0	1	0
30-d mortality, n	0	0	0	0	0	1	0

Table 2 Published comparison studies

Ref.	Li et al[47](2010)	Li et al[46](2010)	Zhu et al[45](2010)	Cheng et al[44](2003)	Cai et al[48](2013)
Compared methods	PD vs SEMS (20, 25, 30 mm)	PD vs SEMS (30 mm)	PD vs SEMS (30 mm)	PD vs SEMS (permanent, temporary)	BTI vs SEMS (25 mm)
Patients, n	30/30/30/30	80/75	38/63	60/8/65	51/59
Technical success, %	100/100/100/100	100/100	100	100/100/100	100/100
Initial remission, %	100/100/100/100	100/100	100	100/100/100	94.1/100
Remission at maximum follow-up, %	0/0/28.6/83.3	0/83.3	42.1/88.9	10/33.3/85.5	4.17/49.1
Major complications
Migration, n	NA/8/4/2	NA/4	NA/2	NA/0/0	NA/4
Perforation, n	0/0/0/0	0/0	0/0	0/0/0	0/0
Bleeding, n	2/3/5/6	4/9	3/10	6/3/8	0/0
30-d mortality, n	0/0/0/0	0/0	0/0	0/0/0	0/0

PD: Pneumatic dilation; SEMS: Self-expandable metallic stent; NA: Not applicable.