Aortopexy for Tracheomalacia Via Partial Sternotomy

Abstract

Tracheomalacia (TM) is a disease that causes the airway obstruction of the tracheal lumen as a result of the structural disorder of the tracheal cartilage. We present a 4-month-old patient who developed ventilator depended TM after repair of esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula. Aortopexy and intraoperative flexible bronchoscopy were first performed via partial sternotomy in Turkey for this patient.  He was weaned from ventilatory support and extubated at the first  and discharged at the 8th post-operative day. Partial sternotomy is performed in the supine position, thus  it allows for intraoperative flexible bronchoscopy permitting to check for the adequacy of the aortopexy.