title: Esophageal-left atrial fistula: intraoperative diagnosis and management.
abstract: Nontraumatic esophageal-atrial fistulas are usually fatal and are diagnosed postmortem. We report a rare case of intraoperative diagnosis and successful surgical management of an esophageal-left atrial fistula in a 70-year-old woman with a history of brachytherapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy for esophageal cancer who presented with progressive dysphagia and hematemesis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Minh-Tri Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Trop
authors.forename: Constantine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soulellis
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szego
authors.forename: Lorenzo E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Ferri
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D004935:Esophageal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D004937:Esophageal Fistula / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000601:surgery*; D006396:Hematemesis / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014456:Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis