Stenting to Eileen

[Guest guest]

Its not a silly question at all hon. Not everybody creates scarr

tissue for one thing. Think about the baloon angioplasty they do on

blood vessels of the heart. Now blood vessels are more elastic and

plaque is squishy but the point it to stretch amd smush the vessle

and plaque back and open the area back up to properly flow.

Ducts are not very elastic and scar tissue is not squishy but they

can be stretched. Repetitive stenting over a period of time by using

more stents or larger bore stents can stretch the duct and sphincter

allowing for better flow. The same way that doing a sphincterotomy

to cut the sphincter muscle to loosen it up. If the patients

problems is primarily an issue of tight sphincter or ductal stenosis

without having any backup of enzymes that can damage the pancreas

then the procedures may be successful. Repetitive Sphincterotomies,

from what understand, can cause more scarring then just stenting.

Some stents are temporary and some can stay in longer. Some stents

are meant to pass in your stool within 2-4 weeks after placing and

some can stay in for up to 3 months. The stents that stay in longer

tend to need to be pulled by a physician rather then passing on their

own. One does not necessarily have to have another ERCP in order to

pull a stent. They can be pulled during a simple EGD.

It is as individual as the patient and doctor as well as the

responses to such procedures. the problmes that I see, and this is

just my opinion and that aint worth much, is doctors who think that

there is only one or two treatments and everybody should respond the

same way. Biliary disease is just not like that and each and every

patient needs to be treated as an individual and doctors need to

realize that.

I hope this helps.

(SC)