Short-term and long-term oncologic outcomes of self-expandable metallic stent compared with tube decompression for obstructive colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: Patients with obstructive colorectal cancer managed by emergency surgery show high morbidity, mortality, and stoma formation rates. Decompression modalities, including the self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) and tube drainage (TD), have been used to improve surgical outcomes. However, there have been limited studies comparing the 2 modalities. We performed a meta-analysis on short- and long-term outcomes between SEMS and TD.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched. Data were pooled, and the overall effect size was calculated using random effect models. Outcome measures were perioperative short-term and 3-year survival outcomes.

Results: We included 20 nonrandomized studies that examined 2,047 patients in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed SEMS had better short-term outcomes in clinical success rate, decompression-related complications, laparoscopic surgery rate, stoma formation rate, and postoperative complication rate with a relative risk (RR) of 0.36 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.24-0.54; I² = 20%), 0.32 (95% CI, 0.20-0.50; I² = 0%), 0.47 (95% CI, 0.34-0.66; I² = 87%), 0.34 (95% CI, 0.24-0.49; I² = 52%), and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.54-0.89, I² = 28%), respectively. However, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in 3-year overall survival (RR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.77-1.27; I² = 0%).

Conclusion: Although the long-term oncologic impact of SEMS is still unclear compared with TD, the results of this meta-analysis may suggest that SEMS insertion can be performed more successfully and safely and may have benefits for short-term perioperative outcomes compared with TD. Further studies are warranted to provide more definitive survival results.