Congenital bronchoesophageal fistulas
Pavlunin, A.V.
Vestnik Khirurgii Imeni I. I. Grekova 157(1): 17-22
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4625 PMID: 9611308 Document Number: 488627
During the period from 1970 till 1996 six patients with congenital bronchoesophageal fistulas were operated upon which was 0.75% of all developmental defects of the lungs. The leading symptoms of bronchoesophageal fistulas in the clinical picture are cough during and after meals and discharge of food mass with sputum. Roentgeno-endoscopic examinations are thought to be the main diagnostic method. Radical treatment of patients with the respiratory-esophageal fistulas was facilitated by dissection of the fistula passage and closure of the openings in the esophagus and bronchus, covering the suture line on the esophagus with a flap of the mediastinal pleura, pericardium. The irreversible alterations in the lung tissue require a one-stage operation on the lung. Palliative operations (gastrostomy, jejunostomy) are indicated in severe pyo-destructive alterations in the lungs for preparation to radical operation.