Early Esophageal Perforation Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion Treated With Controlled Esophageal...

Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a commonly performed procedure. One of its most feared complications is esophageal injury (EI). There is no standard approach on how to treat these injuries. TachoSil^® (Corza Medical GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany) is a fibrinogen-containing patch that has been used in various surgical areas. Here, we present a 68-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with an EI with secondary surgical site infection following a three-level ACDF (C4/5, C5/6, and C6/7). Initially, the patient underwent incision and drainage (I&D) of the surgical site abscess, primary repair of the esophageal tear, and esophageal catheter placement to create a controlled esophagocutaneous fistula. Postoperatively, he was diagnosed with a leak and underwent a second I&D procedure. The primary repair of the EI was augmented with a TachoSil patch, and the patient was started on glycopyrrolate. The site of EI was well-sealed with no re-leaks, and the patient was discharged after he had completed a course of intravenous (IV) antibiotics and had been on parenteral nutrition for a total of 40 days. This case shows that the use of TachoSil to augment the repair of ACDF-associated EI, and glycopyrrolate to decrease salivation could decrease the risk of leak and enhance the healing process. This is an observation that needs to be scrutinized in future studies.