Removable biliary endoprosthesis

Besides eliminating the complications of internal or external percutaneous biliary drainage, the potential psychological benefit of internal biliary endoprosthesis in patients with malignant biliary obstruction has been widely recognized. Unfortunately, however, tubes draining bile tend to become occluded over a period of time. If the tube is an endoprosthesis, the obstruction is usually irreversible. Therefore, this technical note describes an improved type of biliary prosthesis, which has a large lumen and is removable by fiberoptic endoscopy if obstruction occurs.