Esophageal atresia - Treatment - Pediatric Playbook

http://www.childrenshospital.org/eat

You may have heard that esophageal atresia can be challenging to treat. Unfortunately, that's true. But the dedicated, compassionate staff at Boston Children's Hospital is incredibly well-qualified to care for your child. We're known for our science-driven approach—we're home to the most extensive research enterprise located in a pediatric hospital in the world, and we partner with a number of top biotech and health care organizations—but we never forget that your child is a child, and not just a patient.

The best treatment for esophageal atresia is usually surgery to connect the ends of the esophagus together. But in long-gap esophageal atresia, the ends are often too far apart to be easily connected.

Traditionally, babies with this type of long-type atresia are treated in ways that require life-long care and monitoring, such as pulling up the stomach to connect directly to the end of the esophagus (gastric pull-ups), or creating more "esophagus" from a piece of the child's large intestine (colonic transposition).