From nasal drainage tubes to biliary and pancreatic stents

The first endoscopic insertion of a biliary plastic stent (PS) was performed by Soehendra in 1980. He fashioned a single-pigtail endoprosthesis using the cut end of an angiography catheter. For drainage, we had straight type (Panel A) the pigtail type with (Panel B) and without (Panel C) an α form nasal biliary and pancreatic tubes made of polyurethane. We cutted them in various sizes and flanges were made (Panels D-F). Over a period of 6 months, our PS was inserted with a guidewire and pushing catheter in 20 patients in several situations. One PS migrated and was spontaneously eliminated. Endoscopic view of placement of two PS, a pancreatic stent for cannulation with precut sphincterotomy and a biliary stent for incomplete stones extraction (Panel G). After extraction, 5f pancreatic stent after one week (Panel H) and 8f biliary stent after 3 months (Panel I) don’t look so different from the usually used stents. These PS have advantages to be tailor-made and less expensive.