520. TEMPORARY ESOPHAGEAL EXCLUSION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DELAYED RECOGNITION OF THORACIC ESOPHAGEAL PERFORATION

Abstract Background Perforation of the esophagus is a rare surgical emergency and timing is crucial for prognosis. Late interventions are likely to result in terminal bipolar esophageal exclusion, requiring a subsequent reconstructive procedure to restore the esophageal transit, associated with high rate of morbidity and mortality. Methods From January 2013 to June 2023, 32 patients with esophageal perforations referred to our center required surgical treatment. We retrospectively analyzed two cases of late middle thoracic perforation treated with temporary esophageal exclusion. Results A 31-year-old male presented in May 2020 after 6 days from perforation due to bolus impaction in eosinophilic esophagitis and a 79-year-old male referred us in November 2022 8 days after Boerhaave syndrome. Direct closure wasn’t feasible due to tissue fibrosis and degeneration. In both cases we performed thoracoscopic toilette with drainage placement and bipolar temporary exclusion of the esophagus. A lateral esophagostomy was performed, and cardias was temporarily excluded. In the first case a PTFE prothesis was used as a loop around the EGJ and fixed on the abdominal esophagus, in the second case TA45 linear stapler loaded with 3.5 staples was used. For nutritional purposes a gastrostomy and a jejunostomy were placed. Post-operatively, pleural empyema was managed conservatively with a thoracic drain and antibiotic therapy, instead mediastinal collection sustained by the perforation was drained through the tangential esophagostomy with a NG tube placed endoscopically across the perforation. The patients were discharged in 27 and 20 POD respectively. The second patient was readmitted in 45 POD due right lobar pneumonia, treated with antibiotics. In the first case the PTFE prothesis was laparoscopically removed after 70 days and the tangential esophagostomy sutured. In the second case esophageal transit was spontaneously restored and esophagostomy was subsequentially sutured. Oral feeding was resumed in both patients, without resulting stenosis or leakage. Conclusion In selected patients with late thoracic esophageal perforations, temporary esophageal exclusion represented an alternative treatment, without mortality and with low morbidity, to terminal esophageal exclusion and a subsequent reconstructive procedure.