EGS P04 Recent ten year experience of Boerhaave’s Syndrome Management in a tertiary Oesophago-gastric Surgery Centre

Abstract Background Oesophageal Perforation (OP) is a low incidence, high complexity gastrointestinal surgical emergency with associated high mortality rates. A consequence of UK centralisation of oesophago-gastric (OG) cancer surgery is passive centralisation of OG surgical emergencies leading to reduced mortality for OP and lower threshold for surgical intervention by high volume OG cancer surgeons. Boerhaave's Syndrome characterised by Mackler’s Triad (vomiting, thoracic pain and subcutaneous emphysema) represents 30% of OP. UCLH has an OG surgery catchment population of 3 million. We present our experience of managing Boerhaave’s syndrome as an OG cancer centre with a dedicated OG Consultant on-call rota. Methods A retrospective review of electronic health records of all adult patients with a radiological diagnosis of OP over a 10 year period from 01/01/2013 to 31/12/2022) at our institution was performed. The inclusion criteria were adult patients with a clinical and radiological diagnosis of Boerhaave’s syndrome. Those with OP due to malignancy, endoscopic, or foreign body perforation were excluded from further analysis. The primary outcome measure was 90-day mortality and the secondary outcome measures were length of stay and reintervention rate. Results 41 patients with Boerhaave’s syndrome were identified (31 male, 10 female) with median age of 62 (46 - 71). 17 (41.5%) patients presented directly to our institution and 24 (58.5%) were transferred from other hospitals. Primary intervention was surgical in 31 (75.6%), endoscopic in 3 (7.3%) and conservative in 7 (17.1%) patients respectively. Overall 90-day mortality was 12.2% but 6.5% in the surgically managed group. Median length of stay was 58 days (22 - 70). 9 patients had reintervention – 7 (17.1%) had a thoracotomy/thoracoscopic surgery for intrathoracic collections and 2 patients (9.8%) had endoscopic intervention. Conclusions This is a report of the experience of managing Boerhaave’s syndrome in a high volume tertiary OG centre. A favourable 90-day mortality rate of 12.2% compares to 38.8% described in a previous UK cohort is likely a result of management in a tertiary centre with appropriate multidisciplinary infrastructure to manage complex patients and provide a consistently high level of perioperative care. The lower mortality rate (6.5%) in the operatively managed group is likely due to patient selection and surgical techniques honed from familiarity with complex cancer and benign oesophageal surgery and working as part of an effective multidisciplinary team.