Palliative percutaneous transhepatic placement of plastic biliary stents 7 and 10 French for the treatment of malignant biliary obstruction: a primary patency comparison

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the primary patency of 7F vs 10F plastic biliary stents (PBS) placed by percutaneous transhepatic technique in two cohort of patients that received palliative treatment for malignant biliary obstruction. Materials and methods: From January/2016 to April/2020, 34 patients who were admitted to a tertiary academic center because of malignant biliary obstruction were enrolled in a prospective non-randomized study. Between January/2016 to December/2018, 7F PBS implants were performed and between January/2019 to January/2021, 10F PBS implants were performed. Results: The technical successful rates of PBS 7F and 10F were 100% (16/16) and 100% (18/18), respectively (P=1.000). The primary patency was 153.2days for 7F PBS and 230.3days for 10F prosthesis, with a statistically significant difference (P=0.014). The average survival time in the group of patients who used the 7F prosthesis was 230.0 days and that of the 10F prosthesis was 242.0days, with no statistically significant difference (P=0.840). For 7F and 10F groups, stent dysfunctions were found in 7 and 4 patients, respectively (43.7% vs 22%, P=0.434). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of serious adverse events. Conclusions: 10F plastic stents had a longer duration of patency than 7F which recommends their use in the palliative treatment of patients with biliary obstruction due to malignant biliary obstruction.