A Case of Congenital Esophagobronchial Fistula with Esophageal Cancer

Kazuyuki Nagai, Ken Yanagibashi, Tokiharu Miyahara, Noriyuki Okada, Michihiko Wada, Yoshikazu Masai, Takashi Hashimoto, Shirou Imai, Yutaka Konishi and Tatehiro Kajiwara

Department of Surgery, Kobe City General Hospital

A 63-year-old man with a long history of coughing, particularly when drinking beer, was admitted when esophagography showed an esophagobronchial fistula. He also had frequent episodes of pneumonia. Esophagography, esophagoscopy, and bronchoscopy showed a fistula between the anterior wall of the middle thoracic esophagus and the left main bronchus and an esophageal tumor (0-Ip) facing the fistula. Biopsy of the esophageal tumor showed poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma necessitating endoscopic resection. The depth of the cancer was sm2, necessitating open esophagectomy with lymph node dissection and fistula resection. Histologically, the lumen of the fistula was covered with squamous epithelium and surrounded by muscularis mucosa. We diagnosed congenital esophagobronchial fistula (Braimbridge II) based on the patient's history, operative and histological findings. Occurrence of esophageal cancer may be related to the fistula due to their location facing each other.

Key words
congenital esophagobronchial fistula, esophageal cancer, adult

Reprint requests
Kazuyuki Nagai Department of Surgery, Kobe City General Hospital 4-6 Minatojima-Nakamachi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0046 JAPAN

Accepted
January 22, 2003

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.