“Tannenbaum” Teflon stents versus traditional polyethylene stents for treatment of malignant biliary stricture

Plastic Biliary Stent Occlusion: Factors Involved and Possible Preventive Approaches

“…First introduced in 1979, 1 straight, slightly curved or pigtailed plastic stents are today the most commonly used, even if different designs did not have an effect on their patency. 14 Polymeric stents are available in different lengths (5 to 18 cm) and diameters (7 to 12 Fr), with or without side holes, and are provided with anchoring flaps at their ends to reduce possible migration after positioning. Interestingly, in the frame of a study aimed to chemically analyze the clogging material of polymeric biliary endoprostheses, 15 it was determined that 94% of the stents retrieved in the study because of clogging were made of ethylene-vinylacetate copolymer instead of polyethylene as declared by manufacturers.…”

A Comparative Evaluation of Early Stent Occlusion Among Biliary Conventional Versus Wing Stents

“…Clinical studies attempting to prevent plastic stent occlusion with antibiotics and/or choleretics have yielded inconsistent results [12,25,26], and trials employing variations in material, coating, design, and anatomic positioning have yielded generally unsatisfactory outcomes [11,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. The wing stent was designed to overcome the aforementioned limitations.…”

Cost-Effectiveness Decision Analyses Comparing Covered to Uncovered Self-Expandable Metal Stents to Elective or on Demand Polyethylene Stent Changes in Patients with Distal Malignant Biliary Obstruction

“…A series of studies comparing plastic stents with and without side holes have been done, most of which have compared PE and Teflon Tannenbaum (TT) stents. These stents differ not only with regards to the presence of side holes but also in the stent materials which display different coefficients of friction [105][106][107][108]. There has been only one RCT comparing stents of similar material with and without side holes [109].…”

“…Therefore, the use of stents without side holes cannot be substantiated. which, at least 'in vitro', are known to influence the patency of plastic stents [105][106][107]110]. Unfortunately, all RCTs comparing Teflon to PE stents have not substantiated the superior effectiveness of Teflon stents observed in the original study by Binmoller and colleagues [111].…”