You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Articles
Morbidity and mortality of oesophageal perforation
Free
  1. M. R. B. Keighley,
  2. R. W. Girdwood,
  3. G. H. Wooler,
  4. M. I. Ionescu
  1. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The General Infirmary at Leeds and Leeds University

    Abstract

    Thirty-three patients with oesophageal perforation seen within a 20-year period are reviewed. Endoscopic perforation in patients with neoplastic disease of the oesophagus carried a 100% mortality despite early diagnosis and immediate resection of the growth. Only two deaths occurred after instrumental perforation of the thoracic oesophagus for benign pathology in patients who were in the extremes of life.

    Twelve cases with spontaneous perforation were seen. Although the mortality figure of only 8% was encouraging, the morbidity in terms of postoperative complications was considerable, occurring in all but one of the survivors.

    The importance of early diagnosis and adequate treatment in relation to postoperative morbidity and mortality is discussed.

    https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.27.3.353

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

      Request Permissions

      If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.