Due to tremendous progress in materials and technique during the last few years, stenting of the central airways had become an almost-routine procedure as in other fields of endoscopy. But as the anatomical and physiological properties of the tracheobronchial tree are much more complex, no ideal system exists as yet. We report our experience in implanting 165 stents in 95 patients from 1989 until June 1993, their ages ranging from 2 to 90 years. In two-thirds of our patients the cause of stenosis was malignancy due to exophytic endoluminal tumor growth or extrinsic tumor compression. In the remaining patients it was of a benign origin, due mainly to cicatrical stenosis. The time of observation after stenting has been ≥ 3 years. Almost all prostheses were implanted in the central airways, mainly the trachea, followed by the larynx and the main bronchi. During the period of observation we implanted devices such as silicone stents. expandable metallic stents, and self-expanding metallic stents. Patients with different devices have been sent to our hospital from other institutions for treatment of specific complications. In our series there have been typical complications of the various stent systems that must be taken into account in the indication for this procedure. According to these experiences technical improvements have been made, and in the near-future systems will be available that may be introduced easily even under local anesthesia by visual control via flexible endoscopes.