After the feast, the 49-year-old man from Lviv vomited for seven hours. He had pain in his left hypochondrium. An ambulance took the man to St. Luke’s Hospital.
Doctors of the emergency department performed an ultrasound of the patient’s internal organs and an X-ray of the chest. However, the cause of the pain was not found. At that time, the man was getting even worse. And experienced doctors understood: most likely, the man’s esophagus had ruptured. In medical terms, this is called Boerhave syndrome.
This diagnosis was confirmed by fibrogastroscopy, that is, examination of the mucous membrane of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum using an endoscope.
“Banquet esophagus”, as the pathology is also often called, is a rupture of the esophagus, which usually occurs as a result of excessive vomiting after a feast or drinking alcohol. Such patients are rare in medical practice.
Doctors manage to save up to 50% of patients within six hours after the onset of sudden pain – the main symptom of a rupture. After six hours, the chances of life in such patients decrease, because the food enters the mediastinum of the chest and the purulent process begins.
The patient got to the specialists on time and after the examination he was immediately taken to the operating room. It took the surgeons two hours to “repair” the esophagus. Then, in the intensive care unit, doctors discharged the patient for 26 days to stabilize all the systems and functions of his body. And already on the 27th day, he was transferred to the ward of the surgery department.