Self-expanding metallic stents and self-expanding plastic stents in the palliation of malignant oesophageal dysphagia.

Endoluminal stenting has revolutionised the practice of gastrointestinal endoscopy for many years. What started as rigid, inflexible, plastic stents have now evolved into flexible, easy-to-deploy self-expanding stents with a myriad of choices, including covered, partially covered and uncovered types. Many of these also come along with special features including anti-reflux, anti-migration and lasso for stent adjustment and retrieval. Numerous papers with meta-analyses and systemic reviews have without doubt confirmed the efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness of endoluminal stenting in the palliation of malignant obstruction of the oesophagus, stomach, duodenum, colon and the biliary tree. This paper will focus on the use of self-expanding plastic stents (SEPS) as well as self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) in the palliation of malignant oesophageal obstruction.