Abstrakt

Successful salvage surgery for traumatic aorto-esophageal fistula in a toddler: An emphasis on "near miss" aspects

Christopher J Knott-Craig, Abhishek Chakraborty and Umar S Boston

The most common cause of AEF in pediatric age group includes an ingested foreign body or a congenital vascular anomaly which has been previously corrected. Commonly ingested foreign bodies implicated in AEF include sharp objects like a fish or chicken bone and button batteries [3-5]. We describe a case in which an uncommon foreign body, the fin of a toy ?baby shark? was ingested. The surgical approach to this emergency using somatic hypothermia is presented here, and the need for a high suspicion of AEF is emphasized if a good outcome is to be achieved.