Bile duct stents are common.
01 Metal stent Bare metal stents usually use cobalt-chromium alloy or nitinol, which has strong support and large pore size, but during the insertion process, the bile duct epithelial tissue wraps the bare metal stent, resulting in the inability to take it out again, and the stent needs to be implanted again to expand the bile duct lumen after the metal stent is blocked, which greatly increases the difficulty and risk of surgery.
Due to these shortcomings and limitations in application, metal biliary stents are mostly used in patients with advanced cancer.
02 Metal laminated stent
Coated stents are modifications made on bare metal stents, such as Boston Scientific's coated stents, which are coated with a dimethylsilicone coating on the surface of nitinol. The stent graft has the advantages of strong support strength and long maintenance time of bare metal stent, and the stent graft is easy to remove and replace due to the presence of the film layer. However, stent grafts affect bile discharge from the gallbladder and are therefore mostly used in patients whose gallbladder has been removed.
03 Plastic bracket
Plastic stents are also known as bile duct drainage tubes, and the materials are usually polymer materials such as polyethylene, which have weak opening strength and small support pore size, and bile is easy to accumulate in the lumen to form blockages, so the use time is short, and multiple surgeries are required to remove and replace.
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