Stenting in malignant superior vena cava syndrome review advances: in interventional radiology

Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome is a clinical syndrome which is caused by obstruction or compression of SVC and characterized by congestion and edema of upper body, upper extremities, and face, dilatation of neck, arm, and chest wall veins, respiratory distress, and cyanosis and the patients may experience cough, dyspnoea, haemoptysis, dysphagia, chest pain, headache, visual disturbance, convulsions and coma [1,2]. SVC syndrome may be caused by indwelling catheters, pacemaker wires or fibrosing mediastinitis [3-5] but 90 – 95% of the cases are caused by lung or mediastinal malignant tumors [6]. In these cases tIndication andhe aim of endovascular stent implantation is palliative and to alleviate the patients’ symptoms. It has been used in stenosis and obstruction of SVC for more than two decades [7,8]. Stent has become widely accepted in the management of malignant SVC obstruction and is now an accepted therapy as treatment of malignant SVC obstruction especially in advanced lung cancer and mediastinal tumours. Stenting in malignant SVC obstruction is increasingly been performed as it offers rapid relief of symptoms and gives the patients a better quality of life during their limited life expectancies due to the malignant disease itself.