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. 1996 Dec;162(12):951-5.

Early operation for severe corrosive injury of the upper gastrointestinal tract

B Berthet  1 , P Castellani, M I Brioche, R Assadourian, A Gauthier
Affiliations
  • PMID: 9001876

Early operation for severe corrosive injury of the upper gastrointestinal tract

B Berthet et al. Eur J Surg. 1996 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: To describe our experience of treating severe corrosive burns of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Design: Open study.

Setting: Teaching hospital, France.

Subjects: 18 patients who had swallowed an alkaline substance (caustic soda in 10 cases) and 4 who had swallowed either hydrochloric or sulphuric acid.

Interventions: Endoscopy was done a mean of 4 hours after the substance had been swallowed. 10 patients underwent oesophagogastrectomy without thoracotomy.

Main outcome measures: Morbidity and mortality.

Results: 4 of the 10 patients died and 3 developed postoperative complications. Of the 12 patients treated by feeding jejunostomy 7 developed stenosis that required operation and 3 developed stenosis that responded to dilatation. None of the 12 died.

Conclusions: Early oesophagoscopy allowed optimal management. Patients died if they swallowed more than 60 ml of a strong alkaline substance. When patients are treated conservatively about half will develop stenoses that require operation.

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