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| Year : 1997 | Volume
: 2
| Issue : 2 | Page : 71-78 |
Understanding long gap esophageal atresia.
NA Myers
Department of General Surgery, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Correspondence Address:
NA Myers
Department of General Surgery, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne
Australia
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
ABSTRACT: This paper addresses one of the most important problems confronted by the surgeon called upon to manage esophageal atresia, namely when this is associated with a long gap between the two esophageal segments. In recent times, there have many articles devoted to the management of this potentially difficult problem, with many differences in opinion emerging including disagreement as to its precise definition. To avoid repetition, reference is made to earlier publications on this subject, based upon experience at the Royal Children's Hospital , Melbourne (1-3) Although there are various definitions, Our current view is that the use of the term. 'long gap' should be limited to esophageal atresia with or without a proximal fistula- particularly the latter. It is not considered to be a suitable term for those patients with esophageal atresia with a distal fistula, with a significant gap between the esophageal segments. Regardless of the definition, it has become clear there are several options for the management of the long gap. This is not surprising, and is in keeping with the philosophy expressed in a recent Editorial (4), that this is the era of option-it is no longer possible to consider there is only one way to approach a specific problem.
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