NICE has said Danis stent can be used in the NHS for treating acute oesophageal variceal bleeding.
It can be used for short-term control of bleeding in people over 16 if their condition has not responded to endoluminal therapy, and treatments such as transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) procedure or band ligation are being considered. It’s also an option for palliative care if patients cannot have either of those.
Danis stent consists of a tube that expands to put pressure on enlarged veins (varices) in a person’s food pipe (oesophagus) when they are bleeding uncontrollably. Enlarged veins can develop when a person has long-standing scarring liver disease (cirrhosis) that affects blood flow through the liver. Danis stent is better at controlling bleeding in the short term than a balloon tamponade, which is the usual short-term treatment. It can also be left in for 7 days, unlike the balloon tamponade, which has to be taken out after 24 hours. This allows more time to stabilise the patient before their next treatment, and they usually do not need to stay in intensive care.
ISBN: 978-1-4731-4077-6
This page was last updated: