Minimally invasive approach to Boerhaave's syndrome: a pilot study of three cases

Boerhaave's syndrome requires urgent thoracotomy, laparotomy, or both for esophageal repair and pleuromediastinal debridement. Minimally invasive techniques may be suitable alternatives.

Over a period of 12 months, three patients with spontaneous esophageal perforations after forceful vomiting were treated by a combination of minimally invasive techniques including laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, mediastinoscopy, and endoscopic stenting.

Esophageal repair was performed transhiatally via laparoscopy using primary suture, primary suture reinforced by a fundic patch, and fundic patch alone in one patient each. One patient had a second perforation of the proximal esophagus, which was sutured through a cervical incision. This patient successfully underwent secondary endoscopic stenting for a persistent esophageal fistula. Mediastinal debridement was performed transhiatally and also by means of a mediastinoscope introduced via the cervical incision in one patient. One patient required secondary thoracoscopic debridement of a pleural empyema but died of sepsis after 1 month. The two other patients recovered and were discharged from the hospital after 2 and 8 weeks, respectively.

Boerhaave's syndrome is amenable to minimally invasive techniques. Avoidance of a formal thoracotomy with its resulting morbidity could be of considerable benefit to these critically ill patients.