Food Impaction after Expandable Metal Stent Placement: Experience in 1,360 Patients with Esophageal and Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Obstruction

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the incidence, predictive factors, and interventional management of food impaction after expandable metallic stent placement in patients with obstruction of the esophagus or upper gastrointestinal tract caused by benign or malignant disease. Materials and Methods: Between March 1993 and March 2010, 1,360 patients (1,029 men, 331 women; age range, 21-89 y; mean age, 61 y) underwent fluoroscopically guided stent placement for dysphagia caused by esophageal or gastrointestinal tract strictures. Five types of covered expandable metal stents were used, including four types of esophageal stents (types A D) and one type of gastroduodenal stent (type E), with types A, B, C, D, and E stents used in 180, 60, 90, 432, and 598 patients, respectively. Multivariate analysis was performed to evaluate factors predictive of food impaction. Results: Food impaction occurred in 41 of 1,360 patients (3.0%). The food impaction rates for types A, B, C, D, and E stents were 0.6%, 1.7%, 1.1%, 3.2%, and 4.0%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that stent length was an independent predictor of food impaction (odds ratio, 0.839; P = .012). Of the 41 patients with food impaction, 23 underwent endoscopic management, 12 underwent fluoroscopically guided management, and six did not require management because impacted food spontaneously passed through the stent. Conclusions: The overall food impaction rate was 3.0%, with multiple logistic regression analysis showing that shorter stent length was the only significant predictor of food impaction. Food impaction can be managed by endoscopic or fluoroscopically guided removal or placement of a second stent.