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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007;133:1378-1379
© 2007 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief Communication

Benign bronchoesophageal fistula: Report of four cases

^a Department of Thoracic Surgery, University "Federico II," Naples, Italy
^b Department of Cardiac Surgery, University "Federico II," Naples, Italy.

Received for publication October 10, 2006; accepted for publication November 9, 2006.

^_* Address for reprints: Salvatore Griffo, MD, Via Bausan, 1, 80121 Naples, Italy. (Email: sal.griffo@libero.it).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Benign bronchoesophageal fistula (BEF) is rare and may be characterized by nonspecific symptoms that may delay a correct diagnosis.¹ As soon the diagnosis of BEF is made, immediate surgical treatment is necessary to avoid complications. We present 4 cases of benign BEF that we encountered over a 20-year period.

Clinical Summary

Four patients, 2 male and 2 female, mean age 44.0 ± 25.2 years, underwent surgery for BEF. Clinical and diagnostic characteristics are in Table 1. The initial symptomatology was elusive in all patients: recurrent pulmonary infections, mild dysphagia, and asthma-like crises. These symptoms lasted for several months before the appearance of coughing on liquid ingestion, which is diagnostic for BEF. Plain chest radiography and computerized tomographic (CT) scan showed an irregular mass in the lung fields but were not decisive in the diagnosis of BEF. Bronchoscopy and esophagoscopy were not always diagnostic, frequently showing only inflammation in the esophagus or bronchus, or both. The . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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