Stent placement with iodine-125 seeds strand effectively extends the duration of stent patency and survival in patients with unresectable malignant obstructive jaundice.

This study aimed to compare the treatment outcomes and safety between stent placement with or without Iodine- (I) seeds strand for patients with unresectable malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ). A total of 84 patients with unresectable MOJ treated in our hospital were retrospectively included and divided into the stent group ( = 54) undergoing biliary stent placement and the stent + seeds group ( = 30) receiving stent placement with I seeds strand. The therapeutic outcome, postoperative complications, duration of patient survival and stent patency were compared between groups. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to compare the duration of patient survival and stent patency between groups. Cox-regression analysis was performed to investigate predictive factors for disease-free survival and overall survival. The stent + seeds group had significantly longer duration of patency (231.57 ± 256.54 vs. 110.37 ± 120.52) and overall survival (310.57 ± 330.54 vs. 173.15 ± 219.40) than the stent group (both  < .05). In addition, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis confirmed that the stent + seeds group had longer duration of patency (log-rank test,  = .001) and higher overall survival rate (log-rank test,  = .020) than the stent group. Furthermore, Cox-regression analysis demonstrated that treatment methods was an independent factor associated with disease-free survival (HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.19-0.70;  = .003) and overall survival (HR: 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00-1.01;  < .001). The stent placement with I seeds strand can significantly improve the primary patency rate and overall survival time in MOJ patients.