Pharyngeal fistulae after laryngectomy

The incidence and etiology of postlaryngectomy pharyngocutaneous fistulae

“…16 In the case of an imminent pharyngeal fistula the nasogastric tube was left in place and new radiograms were performed at weekly intervals until there were no roentgenologic signs of fistula. Otherwise, the nasogastric tube was removed on the tenth postoperative day.…”

Postlaryngectomy pharyngocutaneous fistula: Incidence, predisposing factors, and therapy

“…The etiology of pharyngocutaneous fistula is still debated. Various predisposing factors have been proposed in the literature: previous radiotherapy, 1,3-12 type of surgery, 5,9,[13][14][15] combination with radical neck dissection, 11,12,16,17 the suture material used for pharyngeal reconstruction, 9 the presence of residual tumor, 5,18 previous conservative surgery, 4 previous neck surgery, 11 preoperative tracheotomy, 16,17 poor general conditions, 12 the site of origin of the tumor, 11 intraoperative blood transfusion, 19 low postoperative hemoglobin level, 6,7,16,17 type of neck drainage, 20 preoperative weight loss, 18 wound infection, [21][22][23][24] postoperative vomiting, 25 and hematoma formation. 21 The contrasting results regarding the relevance of most of the aforementioned factors could be explained in part by the lack of studies using multivariate analysis, 2,10,25 where each variable is adjusted for the others.…”

Pharyngocutaneous fistula following laryngectomy

“…If left untreated, it can lead to a fatal complication such as carotid artery rupture. The reported incidence of PCF ranges from 7.6% to 50% [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] (Table 1). Despite a great number of studies, there is still disagreement as to which factors predispose to this complication.…”