Editorial Page 1 of 6 Swallowing dysfunction in patients with esophageal atresia- tracheoesophageal fistula: infancy to adulthood Tutku Soyer Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey Correspondence to: Tutku Soyer, MD. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. Email:
[email protected]. Provenance: This is an invited Editorial commissioned by Editor-in-Chief Dr. Changqing Pan (Shanghai Chest Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China). Comment on: Gibreel W, Zendalajas B, Antiel RM, et al. Swallowing dysfunction and quality of life in adults with surgically corrected esophageal atresia/tracheoesophageal fistula as infants. Ann Surg 2017;266:305-10. Received: 14 September 2017; Accepted: 21 September 2017; Published: 28 September 2017. doi: 10.21037/shc.2017.09.09 View this article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/shc.2017.09.09 Introduction Definition of SD and dysphagia Esophageal dysfunction is a common problem in children Dysphagia is defined as swallowing disorder caused by with repaired esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula sensory-motor dysfunctions or structural pathology of oral, (EA-TEF) and considered as a long-term sequel of the pharyngeal and/or esophageal phases of bolus transport to cases. Impaired esophageal motility in EA survivors is the stomach (5). Gibreel et al. suggest that dysphagia mainly multifactorial and is attributed to primary abnormality of focus on difficulty of swallowing solid food and the term SD esophageal innervation and vagal nerve damage during includes difficulty swallowing to all food consistencies (3). esophageal repair (1). Dysphagia, regurgitation, aspiration In the letter definition, difficulty of thin or thick liquids and chronic respiratory tract infections are considered as may also assessed as SD.