Abstract:Objective To investigate the factors influencing the clinical success of endoscopic stent drainage in patients with unresectable malignant hilar obstruction. Methods Data of 633 patients with malignant hilar obstruction (Bismuth Ⅱ‑Ⅳ) who successfully received stent placement in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (n=502), the First Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University (n=92), the First People''s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University (n=39) from January 2002 to January 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The primary outcome was clinical success rate, while the secondary outcomes were stent patency and overall survival time. The variables with a P‑value<0.1 in the univariate comparison between clinically successful patients and clinically unsuccessful patients were included in the multivariate logistic regression to further determine independent influencing factors for clinical success in patients. The stent patency and overall survival of clinically successful and clinically failed patients were demonstrated using Kaplan‑Meier curve, and the differences between the two groups were compared using the log‑rank method. Results A total of 503 patients achieved clinical drainage success, with 130 patients experiencing clinical drainage failure. The overall clinical success rate of patients was 79.5%. Univariate analysis showed that gender, disease type, Bismuth classification, cirrhosis, stent type, number of stents, stent crossing duodenal papilla, and liver drainage volume might be factors that affected drainage clinical success (P<0.05). Further multivariate regression analysis confirmed that Bismuth typing (Bismuth Ⅱ‑Ⅲ type VS Bismuth Ⅳ type: OR=3.308, 95%CI: 1.772‑6.176, P<0.001), stent type (metal stent VS plastic stent: OR=3.297, 95%CI: 1.829‑5.942, P<0.001), and stent quantity (bilateral VS unilateral: OR=2.335, 95%CI: 1.463‑3.727, P<0.001) were all independent predictors for drainage clinical success. The stent patency was 6.5 (95%CI:5.6‑7.4) months in clinically successful patients and 1.2 (95%CI: 0.9‑1.5) months in clinically unsuccessful patients (P<0.001), and the survival time was 5.1 (95%CI:4.6‑5.6) months in clinically successful patients and 1.2 (95%CI:0.9‑1.6) months in clinically unsuccessful patients (P<0.001), respectively. Conclusion The clinical success rate of endoscopic stent drainage for inoperable malignant hilar obstruction is low in Bismuth type Ⅳ patients, and metal stent or bilateral drainage can improve clinical success.