PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Approximately 1% of all patients are admitted to an emergency room for upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Differential diagnostics reveal an aortoesophageal fistula (AEF) as the cause of the bleeding in very few cases. Despite increasing means of diagnostics and treatment, mortality is high in patients with AEF even under maximum medical care. These are often fulminant situations with fatal outcome for the patient. We report acase that supports this observation described from previous cases and give acloser look at this rare emergency situation. A54-year-old patient was taken to amaximum care hospital with the clinical diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding after receiving emergency medical treatment. The source of bleeding was quickly identified as an AEF following lobectomy for bronchial cancer. Despite maximum interventional intensive treatment, the patient died afew hours after hospital admission in hemorrhagic shock due to fulminant hemorrhage from the fistula.