Pediatric
surgeon Arnold Coran has done more than 60 operations in which
he’s used a child’s stomach to create an esophagus. But Jesus
Andrade presented a challenge that Coran hadn’t seen before:
a fistula connected the tiny bit of esophagus that the child
did have to his trachea. “It’s an extremely rare variation,”
Coran says. “It was fortunate that we discovered it before the
actual surgery.” It meant that, during the nearly five-hour
surgery, the connection created by the fistula had to be cut
before a tunnel could be created in the baby’s chest via incision
in the lower neck and abdomen to bring the stomach through,
with good blood supply, to successfully complete the esophageal
connection. The toddler, enjoying solid food for the first time
in his life, and his parents were able to fly back to Caracas
just three weeks later.
Pediatric
surgeon Arnold Coran has done more than 60 operations in which
he’s used a child’s stomach to create an esophagus. But Jesus
Andrade presented a challenge that Coran hadn’t seen before:
a fistula connected the tiny bit of esophagus that the child
did have to his trachea. “It’s an extremely rare variation,”
Coran says. “It was fortunate that we discovered it before the
actual surgery.” It meant that, during the nearly five-hour
surgery, the connection created by the fistula had to be cut
before a tunnel could be created in the baby’s chest via incision
in the lower neck and abdomen to bring the stomach through,
with good blood supply, to successfully complete the esophageal
connection. The toddler, enjoying solid food for the first time
in his life, and his parents were able to fly back to Caracas
just three weeks later.
