ESOPHAGOPLASTY IN THE TREATMENT OF CAUSTIC ESOPHAGEAL STRICTURES IN CHILDREN

A total of 111 children with caustic oesophageal strictures who have subsequently undergone oesophagoplasty were reviewed. Overall 80 patients had a retrosternal colon transplant; a two-stage operation with delayed cervical oesophagocolostomy was the preferred method in 68 of them. Of those having retrosternal surgery two had total necrosis and three had necrosis at the distal end of the transplant. The incidence of cervical anastomotic stenosis was six of 12 in the group undergoing single-stage surgery, compared with seven of 68 in those having the two-stage operation. Ten patients underwent a right thoracic retrohilar colon transplant, seven of whom developed redundancy of the graft. Redundancy was a lesser problem in the retrosternal placement of the transplant. Three patients underwent jejuno-oesophagoplasty which resulted in terminal necrosis in one patient and total necrosis in two. The remaining 18 patients had segmental resection of the intrathoracic oesophageal stenosis followed by end-to-end anastomosis. The overall mortality rate in the series was 3.6 per cent (four of 111).