Collapse of a new type of self-expanding metallic tracheal stent.

Alveolus TB-STS is a new self-expanding, completely polyurethane-covered, metallic stent which has been designed to be successfully used even in the treatment of non-neoplastic airway strictures as it is supposed to be removable. We recently observed the collapse of an Alveolus tracheal stent, causing dyspnea and hemopthysis, in a 63-yr-old female patient with post-intubation tracheal stenosis. Such a complication, which to our knowledge has never been previously reported with metallic stent use, forced us to remove the stent.