Perforation of the intrathoracic oesophagus. A report of nineteen cases

A series of 19 patients with perforation of the intrathoracic oesophagus is presented. Recent perforations were treated by primary suture. All these patients survived, although the suture did not hold in all cases. Old perforations, together with recent ones that leaked after suturing, were treated by drainage and gastrostomy. Two of these patients died; they were the only patients in whom the first attempt at drainage was unsatisfactory and thus had to be revised. The treatment of oesophageal perforations seems to be in accordance with the long-established principles of treatment of other gastro-intestinal and genito-urinary fistulas: firstly to restrict primary suturing to non-inflammatory tissue, and secondly to apply the principles of secondary healing by means of decompression and drainage.