Aortoesophageal fistulae due to gunshot wounds: report of two cases with one survivor.

We report the cases of two patients who developed aortoesophageal fistulae after sustaining gunshot wounds to the chest. One suddenly exsanguinated 5 hours postinjury while in the angiography suite. The other manifested 4 weeks postinjury while in a rehabilitation hospital for associated spinal cord injury. The diagnosis and management were complicated, but the patient lived. He is the only survivor of aortoesophageal fistula due to gunshot wound that we could find in the literature.