Palliative treatment of malignant gastric outlet obstructions with a large-diameter metallic stent: prospective preliminary study.

Large-diameter (24 mm) stent placement was prospectively performed in seven patients with mild malignant gastric outlet obstruction (ie, allowing passage of adult endoscope) or unusual obstruction location. The degree of dysphagia was categorized into five grades: 0 (regular diet), 1 (some solid food), 2 (soft diet), 3 (liquid diet), and 4 (complete dysphagia). One month after stent placement, all patients had improvement of at least one grade in their level of dysphagia. Large-diameter stent placement may be clinically effective in gastric outlet obstruction cases with a high risk of stent migration as a result of mild obstructions or unusual obstruction location. Copyright 2010 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.