Universal Partially Covered Removable Self-Expanding Stent and Anchoring System for the Treatment of Refractory Benign Esophageal Strictures (UAS-RBS): a Safety Study

Refractory strictures are defined as benign esophageal strictures who do not achieve acceptable symptom relief despite an intensive dilation schedule. Considering the failure of balloon or mechanical dilation other techniques such as intralesional injection of corticosteroids or stents placement were developed.

Self-expandable metal stents, plastic stents and biodegradable stents are also used in that indication. In a meta-analysis of 18 studies with 444 patients, clinical success was achieved in 41 percent of patients. Stent migration occurred in 29 percent of patients, and adverse events occurred in 21 percent.

A self-expending nitinol stent has been design to reduce the migration risk. The stent is partially covered on both extremities, allowing the formation of small hyperplasia in the middle part of the stent. This design with the inner sheet (usually, when using fully covered stents, the sheet is outside) allows formation of hyperplasia (therefore reducing the risk of migration) but partly controlled by the inner sheet to reduce the risk of lumen occlusion. By this design, the balance between hyperplasia formation to avoid the risk of migration and reducing the risk of lumen occlusion could be entailed stable esophageal calibration.

The UAS-RBS system is a reversible procedure to treat Refractory Benign Esophageal Strictures through stent implantation. Above standard of care monitoring, safety assessment of the procedure and device performance decreases the risk and unforeseen events.