Endoscopic stents in the management of anastomotic complications after foregut surgery: new applications and techniques.

BACKGROUND: Anastomotic complications after foregut surgery include leaks, fistulas, and late strictures. The management of these complications can be challenging, and it may be desirable to avoid complex reoperation.

OBJECTIVES: We aim to describe the indications and outcomes of the use of esophageal self-expanding metal stents in the management of postoperative anastomotic complications after foregut surgery.

SETTING: Tertiary-referral academic medical center.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of a prospectively managed database. Data was collected on patient demographic characteristics, work-up, intraprocedure findings, and outcomes.

RESULTS: From October of 2009 to November of 2014, 47 patients (mean age 51.1, 36 women and 11 men) underwent endoscopic stent placement for anastomotic complications following upper gastrointestinal (UGI) surgery. The median time from index operation to endoscopic stent placement was 52 days (range 1-5280 days). Indications were sleeve leak or stenosis, gastrojejunal leak or stenosis after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), pouch staple-line leak after RYGB, enterocutaneous fistula, perforation after endoscopic dilation, upper gastrointestinal bleeding after peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), and peptic stricture after POEM. Symptomatic improvement occurred in 76.6% of patients, and early oral intake was initiated in 66% of patients. 14 patients (29.8%) went on to require definitive surgical intervention for persistent symptomatology. The average follow-up was 354.1 days (range 25-1912 days).

CONCLUSION: This paper describes the use of endoscopic stent therapy for a variety of pathologies after upper gastrointestinal surgery. We demonstrate that, in the appropriate setting, it is an effective and less-invasive therapeutic approach.