Clogging and other complications of endoscopic biliary endoprostheses.

This study included 236 patients treated with endoscopic biliary endoprostheses. Malignant strictures were responsible for the obstruction in 87% of the patients. The 1-week and 1-month mortality for patients with malignant strictures was 10% and 22%, respectively, whereas that of patients with benign conditions was 3% and 10%, respectively. The major complication encountered was the frequent hospital readmissions of patients owing to clogging of their endoprostheses. Late clogging had an overall occurrence of 33% and presented with recurrence of jaundice with or without fever or pain. Late signs of cholangitis occurred in 15% of the patients, whereas other late complications were rather infrequent. Although 10-french endoprostheses had a significantly longer patency period than 7-french--that is, 6 months versus 2 months (p = 0.01)--the proportion of patients in whom clogging occurred was nearly the same, 30% for 10-french and 32% for 7-french endoprostheses.