Oncologia Clínica: Relatos de Casos

Successful Closure of the Post Tracheostomy Tracheoesophageal Fistula with Sternohyoid Muscle Interposition

Arsheed Hussain Hakeem*, Hassaan Javaid, Hemanth Vudayaraju, Usaamah Javaid

We report the case in which  post tracheostomy tracheoesophageal fistula was  successfully managed by primary closure of the tracheal and oesophageal fistula with interposition of a sternohyoid muscle flap. Tracheoesophageal fistula  at 20 cm form incisor teeth developed in a 56-year-old male  who had  tracheostomy as part of the supraglottic laryngectomy. Oesophageal and tracheal defects were dissected out and separately sutured and left inferiorly based sternohyoid muscle flap was interposed between the two suture lines. Satisfactory breathing and swallowing functions were gained after 3 weeks of surgery independent of nasal tube feeding and re-tracheostomy was avoided. Our method is simple and effective technique for successful closure of post tracheostomy tracheooesophageal fistula utilizing location tissues for achieving good results without significant morbidity and it can be practised even in nutritionally low patients.