Post tubercular gastropulmonary fistula: A rare complication

Abstract

Gastropulmonary fistulas are themselves a very rare clinical entity and very less has been written about them in literature. Most of the cases listed in literature till now show that most of the gastropleural fistulas have been reported after intrathoracic gastric perforation in hiatal hernia, traumatic diaphragmatic hernia with later gastric perforation, perforated malignant gastric ulcer at fundus, extension of subphrenic abscess with gastric perforation, pulmonary resection and gastric bypass operations and only a single case has been documented till now regarding post intercostal chest tube drainage gastropulmonary fistula in tubercular patient. Here we present a first of its kind case where a middle aged female developed gastropulmonary fistula on the left side after multiple pleural aspirations for tubercular pleural effusion. The patient was operated and left lower lobectomy was done with the resection of involved part of stomach and fistulous tract from the left posterolateral thoracotomy.

Keywords

• Gastropulmonary fistula
• Thoracotomy
• Subphrenic abscess
• Pulmonary resection
• Complication