Surgical Management of Near-Total Esophageal Atresia

The large majority of congenital esophageal atresias are amenable to resection of the atretic area and primary end-to-end esophageal anastomosis. The recent medical literature supports this conclusion almost without exception.¹⁻³In 1943 Haight⁴performed the first successful one-stage operative repair of this anomaly, and the essentials described by him are those presently employed by the majority of surgeons who treat cases of this type. Though mortality following this operation remains relatively high, the association of other anomalies, or prematurity, or both very often are responsible for death.¹,³ However, in the newborn with either total or near-total atresia there has been manifest concern over the means of establishing continuity of the esophagus. The mortality has been very high.¹,³Berg⁵recently reported a case of near-total esophageal atresia in which primary esophagogastrostomy was successfully employed. Our experience with a similar patient, so managed, prompts this report. We