Selected phlebological abstracts.

OBJECTIVES This systematic review investigated the incidence of stent migration in patients with acute and chronic deep venous iliofemoral disease who were treated with dedicated venous stents. Procedural approaches, clinical and stent patency outcomes, and other complications are described. METHODS MEDLINE and Embase were searched for literature published from January, 2012 to December, 2021. Evidence on the study population and procedural characteristics, and outcomes related to symptomatic changes, health-related quality of life, stent patency and complications was presented. RESULTS Fourty-two studies were identified from 857 articles found through the database searched. Five-hundred seventy acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients and 2,859 chronic disease patients were included. Ten dedicated venous stent brands were employed. There were six episodes of stent migration (0.17% of patients); of which three involved a closed-cell stent and one involved a hybrid-design stent. The 12-month primary patency rate in patients with acute DVT ranged from 86 to 88%, whilst secondary patency was 96%. Amongst the chronic-disease cohort the primary and secondary patency were noted to range from 59% to 94%, and 87% to 100%, respectively. The pooled 12-month primary and secondary stent patency rates were 73.8% and 91.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION Iliofemoral stenting using dedicated venous stents is associated with a low rate of stent migration, although this may be due to a lack of reporting. Further research with specific surveillance protocols is necessary to reliably determine the true incidence of stent migration.