Intraoperative ventilatory management of adult tracheoesophageal fistula

Iatrogenic Tracheo Esophageal Fistula (TEF) in adults is a rare complication occurring secondary to trauma and prolonged intubation. There is very scarce data regarding its airway management and that too is from the paediatric age group. We describe the case of a young male undergoing TEF repair. We started with routine tracheal intubation but during surgery our tracheal tube was hindering surgical repair. So we used intermittent ventilation by passing the tracheal tube distal to the fistula and then pulling it back and providing clear surgical field during apnoea. It was done several times until the repair was completed successfully. Different airway management techniques are described in literature with the most common being oral intubation and placement of cuff distal to the fistula. However it may need to be modified according to the situation. We used a different technique for ventilation and will discuss it's pros and cons.