Endoscopic prosthesis for advanced esophageal cancer.

Dysphagia, regurgitation and hypersalivation due to local destruction or incessant coughing in the presence of a tracheo-broncho-esophageal fistula become the most important distressing factors in the end stage of malignancies in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Inevitably such patients have a short life expectancy. It is often desirable to avoid the morbidity associated with surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The non-operative insertion of a prosthesis is increasingly being carried out to palliate malignant dysphagia.