Adulthood of patients after oesophageal atresia repair – General Surgeon’s Guide

Introduction: Despite proper surgical management in neonatal period, congenital oesophageal atresia (OA) may present a serious source of lifelong disorders. Aim: The objective of our study is to present the most important facts about oesophageal atresia, types of treatment and possible complications which might demand surgical management in adult life. We would like to familiarize general surgeons with this matter to provide OA patients with proper medical care. Material and methods: We made a thorough literature review of Medline database and Cochrane Library with "(o)esophageal atresia", "long gap", "surgery" and “follow-up” used as keywords. Results: Long-term observation reveals that patients with OA may need help from general surgeons, however do not often look for it. Even after surgical repair in neonatal period, OA indisposes to multiple concomitant disorders including gastroesophageal reflux disease, oesophagitis, strictures, epithelial metaplastic changes in the oesophagus or hiatal hernia development. Endoscopic follow-up should be systematically performed in OA patients’ population in order to early detect possible pathologies.Conclusions: Advancement in medicine allowed to improve survival rates and adulthood is reached more often in the population of OA patients. In the face of a variety of concomitant problems, systematic long-term follow-up seems to be crucial in proper medical care in these patients.