Surgical approach for the treatment of aortoesophageal fistula combined with dual aortic aneurysms: A case report

Abstract

Aortoesophageal fistula is a rare disease with a high mortality rate. The disease is with high mortality due to aneurysm rupture, and thus successfully managed cases are rarely reported. Here, we report a case of aortoesophageal fistula caused by a huge descending aneurysm and another smaller aneurysm found in the aortic arch. Such case was relatively rare in the cardiovascular field. Due to the limited experience, it was difficult to determine the proper therapeutic strategy. For this case, for the dual aneurysm, we surgically inserted an aortic endovascular stent-graft to exclusive the aneurysm and simultaneously repair the other aortic arch aneurysm. The patient had an uneventful recovery and was discharged after 1 month antibiotics therapy for the palliative treatment of the esophageal fistula. She survived for 8 months at home before dying of massive hematemesis. Here, we present the operative method and our therapeutic experience for this extremely rare case. © 2013 Xu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.