Results after Definitive Surgical Treatment in Patients with Enteroatmospheric Fistula

As enteroatmospheric fistulas (EAF) lack healthy overlying tissue, spontaneous healing is very unlikely. Our aim was to identify risk factors for recurrence and mortality after definitive surgical treatment for EAF. Sixty-two consecutive patients with a diagnosis of EAF were submitted to definitive surgical repair (fistula resection and primary anastomosis) during a 6-year period. Several patient, disease, and operative variables were assessed as risk factors associated to our endpoints: recurrence and mortality. All patients were followed-up until hospital discharge or death. Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed. There were 24 females and 38 males with a median age of 53 years (interquartile ranges 43–63). EAF recurred in 23 patients. Univariate analysis identified several risk factors for recurrence which included performing more than one anastomosis (20 vs 52%, P = 0.013), failure of achieving total abdominal closure (16 vs 47%, P = 0.025), intraoperative hemorrhage >400 cc (28 vs 65%, P = 0.007), presence of multiple fistulas (25 vs 61%, P = 0.008), and preoperative C-reactive protein >0.5 mg/dL (54 vs 82%, P = 0.029). The latter two remained significant after multivariate analysis. Final EAF closure was attained in 47 patients (76%) and 8 more (13%) had a low-output (<50 mL/day) enterocutaneous fistula. Timing of surgery was not related to fistula recurrence. Eight patients died (13%), and fistula recurrence was the only risk factor found related to mortality both through univariate (26 vs 5%, P = 0.043) and after multivariate analysis. EAF management represents a rather challenging problem. Timing for surgical treatment is controversial and is based mostly on patient status and surgeon's criteria. Recurrence is associated to EAF characteristics and an inflammatory state; it was also the only factor associated to mortality.