Roberto Tambucci, Océane Wautelet, Astrid Haenecour, Geneviève François, Christophe Goubau, Isabelle Scheers, Marin Halut, Renaud Menten, Sandra Schmitz, Caroline de Toeuf, Thierry Pirotte, Beelke D'hondt, Raymond Reding, Alain Poncelet
Abnormal connections between the esophagus and low respiratory tract can result from embryological defects in foregut development. Beyond well-known malformations, including tracheo-esophageal fistula and laryngo-tracheo-esophageal cleft, rarer anomalies have also been reported, including communicating bronchopulmonary foregut malformations and tracheal atresia. Herein, we describe a case of what we have called "esophageal trachea," which, to our knowledge, has yet to be reported. A full-term neonate was born in our institution presenting with a foregut malformation involving both the middle esophagus and the distal trachea, which were found to be longitudinally merged into a common segment, 3 cm in length, located just above the carina and consisted of esophageal tissue without cartilaginous rings...
2020: Frontiers in Pediatrics