Aortopexy for Tracheomalacia Via Partial Sternotomy
Zafer Turkyilmaz
Departments of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Ramazan Karabulut *
Departments of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Ebru Ergenekon
Departments of Neonatology, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Gokcen Emmez
Departments of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Berrin Isik
Departments of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Ibrahim Hirfanoglu
Departments of Neonatology, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Teymursah Muradi
Departments of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Melda Tas
Departments of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Aysegul Simsek
Departments of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
Kaan Sonmez
Departments of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Tracheomalacia (TM) is a disease that causes the airway obstruction of the tracheal lumen as a result of the structural disorder of the tracheal cartilage. We present a 4-month-old patient who developed ventilator depended TM after repair of esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula. Aortopexy and intraoperative flexible bronchoscopy were first performed via partial sternotomy in Turkey for this patient. He was weaned from ventilatory support and extubated at the first and discharged at the 8th post-operative day. Partial sternotomy is performed in the supine position, thus it allows for intraoperative flexible bronchoscopy permitting to check for the adequacy of the aortopexy.
Keywords: Tracheomalacia, aortopexy, esophageal atresia, partial sternotomy, flexible bronchoscope