Journal of Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Medicine 2013 , Vol 4, Issue 2
Esophageal Perforation: A Rare but Fatal Complication of Urgent Sengstaken Blakemore Tube Intubation
Türkay Akbaş 1 , Hüseyin Bilgin 2 , Ender Güneş Yeğin 3 , Osman Cavit Özdoğan 3 , Nuri Çağatay Çimşit 4 , Sait Karakurt 5
1Department of Internal Medicine, Intensive Care Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey
2Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey
3Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey
4Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey
5Department of Thoracic Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey
DOI : 10.5152/dcbybd.2013.323

Acute variceal bleeding is an important cause of mortality among cirrhotic patients. Endoscopic band ligation and medical vasoactive drugs are the main treatment options for actively bleeding varices. In some cases, these therapies can fail and a Sengstaken Blakemore tube (SBT) is used to stop the bleeding by direct compression of varices. Although it is very effective in stopping variceal bleeding, SBT has some lethal complications. In this paper, we discuss the case of a patient who developed esophageal perforation after insertion of the SBT.

Keywords : Variceal bleeding, balloon tamponade, mediastinitis