Surgical management of tracheoesophageal fistula

The patient is a 54-year-old female who suffered smoke inhalational injury during a house fire. She required prolonged intubation and mechanical ventilation and eventually underwent open tracheostomy tube placement. In the setting of recurrent pneumonia, she was diagnosed with a tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF). An attempt at TEF closure with esophageal clips was unsuccessful. A transcervical TEF repair was performed at an outside institution with a limited tracheal resection