Occurrence of Boerhaave’s syndrome after diagnostic colonoscopy: what else can emergency physicians do?

Abstract

Boerhaave's syndrome is a barogenic tear of the esophagus, typically at the gastroesophageal junction, caused by a sudden increase in intraluminal pressure in the distal esophagus. [1] In recent years, the number of Boerhaave's syndrome cases has increased, and a growing proportion of clinicians have recognized this rare but life-threatening disease. Untimely diagnosed patients showed a significant association with high mortality, which was >56% after 24 h and 75%-89% after 48 h. [2] Emergency physicians play a critical role in the early rapid detection and diagnosis of Boerhaave's syndrome by arranging reasonable examinations and developing a multidisciplinary team. Herein, we report a case from China of a patient who developed spontaneous esophageal rupture during diagnostic colonoscopy. We aim to determine the optimal management strategies for Boerhaave's syndrome from an emergency physician's perspective.

The perilous consequences of bowel preparation: a case study with literature review of Boerhaave syndrome

“…We searched the literature in the databases Google Scholar, Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and Embase using keywords such as esophageal perforation, Boerhaave syndrome, bowel preparation, colonoscopy and complication. Few studies of esophageal rupture associated with colonoscopy and bowel preparation have been published (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Herein we have reported these studies' demographic features, symptoms, location of esophageal rupture, length of the laceration, diagnostic method, imaging findings, treatment and outcome in the following Table 1.…”