Surgical treatment of spontaneous rupture of esophagus

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of the modified surgery for spontaneous rupture of esophagus (SRE) so as to improve treatmeut level.Methods Clinical data and surgical methods of 16 SRE patients including four patients with mid-esophagus ruptures and 12 with lower esophagus ruptures treated between February 1999 and June 2011 were analyzed retrospectively.All patients had only one laceration with the gap length of 1.5-5 cm (median 2.5 cm).Eleven patients had rupture into the left breast,two had rupture into the right chest,with no rupture into the chest in three patients.Ten patients suffered from hydropneumothorax and five from subcutaneous emphysema.Thc esophageal mucosas rathcr than muscular layers of all patients were sutured disconnectedly with absorbable thread.Omentum majus were embedded and fixed to muscular layer on the edge of esophagus rupture site.Fundus ventriculi were suspended and fixed to the dome of diaphragm.In the meantime,diaphragmatic hiatus were reconstructed above the esophagus rupture site for lower esophagus ruptures.Results The time from SRE attack to operation ranged from one hour to three days.Eleven patients were repaired within 24 hours of SRE onset and five patients were repaired after 24 hours of SRE onset.All patients got through the perioperative period smoothly and survived the operation with cure rate of 100％.The median hospital stay was 18.5 days.No esophageal narrow or canceration were found during follow-up (range,1-10 years),but two patients suffered from reflux which were relieved significantly after conservative treatment.Conclusion For treatment of SRE,interrupted suture for esophageal mucosal layers,omentum majus embedding instead of esophageal muscular layer suture and simultaneous anti-reflux operations can significantly reduce incidence of complications like esophageal fistula,stenosis and reflux and improve the cure rate. Key words: Esophagus; Rupture, spontaneous; Therapy