Improvement of surgical methods for the treatment of spontaneous rupture of the esophagus ­complicated by purulent mediastinitis

Aim. To improve surgical treatment outcomes of patients with spontaneous rupture of the esophagus complicated by purulent mediastinitis.

Methods. Over the past 30 years, we have experience in the surgical treatment of 31 patients with spontaneous rupture of the esophagus complicated by purulent mediastinitis. Depending on the tactics and techniques of surgical treatment, we identified two groups of patients. The first group (n=8) consisted of patients operated with conventional techniques: thoracotomy, transpleural mediastinotomy according to Dobromyslov, suturing of the esophagus with drainage of the mediastinum and pleural cavities, “blind” mediastinal drainage. The second group (n=23) consisted of patients treated with “programmed re-thoracotomy”. Re-thoracotomy was performed along with the postoperative thoracotomy wounds. The delimited foci of purulent mediastinitis were opened and sanitized (necrotic tissues were excised and removed). Preventive hemostatic methods were used in the area of pressure ulcers from drainage tubes. Replacing and changing the position of the drainage tubes in the mediastinum was a strictly compulsory technique. Pus and necrotic soft tissue that appeared in the thoracotomy wound were subsequently eliminated by a device consisting of two titanium brackets connected by a lock embodied in the form of an oval ring during the wound suturing at the stage of programmed re-thoracotomy. The groups were comparable in age and comorbidities. The average diagnosis of spontaneous esophageal rupture took 3.5 days; the maximum time is 10 days. The statistical significance of differences in immune status indicators was assessed by using the Student's t-test and Pearson's χ2 test.

Results. A systematic approach using the tactical and technical surgical techniques developed by us (such as suturing esophageal wall defects regardless of the rupture time, multifunctional nasoesophagogastric tube installation; the imposition of a purse string suture to prevent reflux from the stomach into the esophagus; programmed re-thoracotomy using the method of temporary fixation of the ribs) allowed to reduce the number of complications, such as haemorrhage from the mediastinal vessels, by 3 times, sepsis — 1.5 times, mortality — almost 2 times.

Conclusion. The introduction of patented techniques allowed to reduce the number of life-threatening complications and mortality in patients with spontaneous rupture of the esophagus complicated by purulent mediastinitis.