If a patient has obstructing colon cancer (blocked bowel), he/she will require surgery unless his/her health is so critical that surgery is contra-indicated (e.g. someone with life-threatening heart failure found to have blocked bowel). Stenting is performed to alleviate the blockage so that the patient's overall health can be improved prior to undergoing the surgery.
Stenting has been shown to improve the patient's surgery results and reduce complications if the cancer is in the left side of the colon. Blockage on the right side of the colon is best treated with surgery as stenting does not improve the result of surgery. The surgeon will also need to know how to perform the stenting or get an endoscopist who is experienced with stenting to do the procedure. Currently, the technique is widely practiced and available in almost all hospitals in Singapore.
