The Sengstaken-Blakemore tube: uses and abuses

Seet E, Beevee S, Cheng A, Lim E
Correspondence: Dr Edwin Seet, seetedwin@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Due to its complications including oesophageal and gastric ulceration and perforation, the Sengstaken-Blakemore tube is used far less commonly in this new millennium where endoscopic intervention is available. We discuss in a 53-year-old Indian woman an unusual life-saving use of the Sengstaken-Blakemore tube in preventing fatal exsanguination from an aortoesophageal fistula, as well as rare but devastating consequences of the insertion and residence of the Sengstaken-Blakemore tube, including acute airway obstruction and bronchoesophageal fistula.
 

Keywords: airway obstruction, aortoesophageal fistula, bronchoesophageal fistula, Sengstaken-Blakemore tube
Singapore Med J 2008; 49(8): e195-7