Sharp Recanalization of an Esophageal Occlusion after Repair of Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Stricture

Gastrointestinal intervention in children

Interventional radiology is a rapidly growing discipline in paediatrics. Many non-vascular interventional techniques may be used in the gastrointestinal tract in children. The technically simpler and more common of these may be adopted by any paediatric radiologist with an interest in interventional radiology. Other rarer and more complex techniques are currently restricted to specialist centres with a higher overall caseload. This review emphasizes the common procedures such as oesophageal dilatation, gastrostomy, insertion of transgastric jejunal feeding tubes and biopsy. Less common salivary, hepatobiliary, pancreatic and intestinal interventions are also described.

Bronchial Catheterization with a TIPS Dilator After Failure of Conventional Technique

OBJECTIVE

A technique is presented for catheterization of an obstructed bronchus when use of a conventional vascular catheter has failed. In some cases, strictures become too stenotic or blunt for passage of a guidewire, making further intervention impossible. We attempted to negotiate a stricture opening using a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) dilator with a guidewire inside it.

CONCLUSION

The catheterization technique with a TIPS dilator was successful in nine cases in which use of conventional catheters and guidewires had failed.