Surgical strategy for the treatment of pyriform sinus fistula

Pyriform sinus fistula recurs when a complete excision of the fistula has not been made. As a supportive technique for this radical operation, the authors performed an intraoperative endoscopic examination of the pyriform sinus for the cannulation or dye injection of the tract in four cases. In three cases, the sinuses were relatively long and ran outside the thyroid cartilage. The cannulation of the tract with a guide wire, in these cases, was useful for identifying the thin membranous tract. In one of these three cases sinus fistula recurred, but a complete excision of the tract was then performed by introducing a 10F Nelaton catheter over a guide wire, which allowed for easy handling of the remnant tract. In the remaining case, cannulation proved not to be useful because the tract was short and ran inside the thyroid cartilage. A short tract embedded within the inferior constrictor muscle could only be found through careful observation after repeated dye injections. The proper selection of the optimum supportive techniques as described above, are considered to be essential for performing a complete excision.