Objective: To evaluate the performance of the Allium ureteral stent in the management of patients initially treated with double J stents for the long-term treatment of stenoses.
Materials and methods: We performed a retrospective multicenter study involving 36 patients who received 37 Allium ureteral stents (metallic 24 Fr) between September 2011 and January 2015 in one of three French teaching hospital centers. The mean age of the patients was 63.8 years (min-max: 33-88 years) and most were women (70%). Of these patients, 5.6% had ureteral fistulae and 94.4% stenoses. Mean stenosis length was 4.15cm (min-max: 0.5-12cm). All analyses were two-tailed with an alpha risk of 0.05. Statistical significance was set at P<0.05. Results were expressed as hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals and P-values.
Results: During the follow-up period, 37% of the stents were removed due to migration (complication occurring in 18.9% of the studied population), infection (10.8%) or intolerance (8.1%). The other stents were removed after 1 year. Clinical effectiveness, defined as a lack of stenosis or fistula recurrence, was 52.8% after a mean follow-up of 7.1 months.
Conclusion: Clinically effective in more than 50% of cases, the Allium ureteral stent appears to be an alternative to indwelling double J stents.
Level of evidence: 4.
Keywords: Fistula; Fistule; Stenosis; Stent urétéral; Sténose; Ureter; Ureteral stent; Uretère.
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