Flexible Retrograde Endoscopy before Reconstructive Surgery in Esophageal Atresia-A Case Report

Diaconescu Smaranda¹, Stanca Raluca², Aprodu Gabriel Sandu³, Sarbu Ioan³, Ciongradi Iulia^3, and Ciubotariu Gabriela¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, “Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

²Gastroenterology Unit, “St. Mary” Children’s Emergency Hospital, Iasi, Romania

³Department of Pediatric Surgery, “Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi, Romania

Cite this paper

Diaconescu Smaranda, Stanca Raluca, Aprodu Gabriel Sandu, Sarbu Ioan, Ciongradi Iulia and Ciubotariu Gabriela. Flexible Retrograde Endoscopy before Reconstructive Surgery in Esophageal Atresia-A Case Report. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2015; 3(12):387-390. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-3-12-1

Abstract

In esophageal atresia multiple surgical techniques were designed to repair the esophageal conduct, the decision of choosing a specific type of intervention being strictly related to the length of esophageal gap which is mandatory for operative planning. We present a case of a newborn male with type III LADD esophageal atresia with an anastomotic leak and severe mediastinitis that complicated the primary surgical procedure and imposed cervical esophagostomy and gastrostomy. At the age of one year the child was admitted again in our unit for the esophageal reconstruction. In order to choose between an end to end suture and a procedure of esophageal replacement we tried to estimate the esophageal gap using flexible retrograde endoscopy. The operative decision was finally the esophageal replacement because the esophageal gap was longer than four vertebral bodies. Depending on endoscopist’s skills the fiber optic endoscopy with radio opaque landmark and X-ray might be considered as a useful procedure in measure the gap length and surgical decision.

Keywords

esophageal atresia, fiber optic endoscopy, esophageal gap, children

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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