Congenital fistulae between the tracheobronchial tree and oesophagus usually originate from the lower end of the trachea or right main bronchus. The case history is presented of a man in whom a fistula between the oesophagus and left main bronchus was not diagnosed until the age of 48.

Achalasia is an idiopathic motility disorder of the oesophagus of increasing incidence. It is characterized by aperistalsis of the lower oesophagus and failure of relaxation of the lower oesophageal sphincter. Patients classically present with chronic symptoms of dysphagia, chest pain, weight loss and regurgitation, and they commonly suffer pulmonary complications such as recurrent microaspirat...

An 18-year-old boy presented with a four-year history of dysphagia which had been treated repeatedly by endoscopic removal of papillomata of the oesophagus. Eventually, due to increasing dysphagia and repeated recurrences of the papillomata, resection of the affected lower third of the oesophagus was deemed necessary. The resected segment of the oesophagus was carpeted with numerous benign squa...

Diseases and malformations of the oesophagus have hitherto been a neglected field in paediatrics. During recent years this attitude has been altered, because the progress of thoracic surgery has made operations on the oesophagus a much safer procedure and has thus increased the possibility of treating surgically oesophageal lesions in children. Among the diseases and malformations which have be...

DESCRIPTION A54-year-old female patientwas referred to our hospital for a chest x-ray due to chest discomfort of 2 months duration. She had a history of thyroid cancer. The chest x-ray demonstrated a large posterior mediastinal mass with smooth borders, displacing the trachea anteriorly (figures 1 and 2). Because of her history of thyroid cancer, a I total body scan was ordered to exclude metas...

T he outcomes of patients with erosive oesophagitis, treated with acid suppression therapy (proton pump inhibitors), has been dictated by the baseline severity of erosive oesophagitis, presence of hiatus hernia, duration of therapy and, in some studies, by the Helicobacter pylori status of the patients. 2 It has been shown that higher grades of erosive oesophagitis (Los Angeles grades C and D) ...

Anti-Endomysium antibodies (EmA) detection is the most reliable test for the diagnosis of coeliac disease. Usually monkey distal oesophagus sections are used. Tests with ELISA anti-gliadin (AGA) antibodies show that umbilical cord EmA tests can effectively substitute monkey oesophagus EmA tests.

Perforation of the oesophagus is an occasional tragic complication of endoscopy. It is most liable to occur when a carcinoma is present in the oesophagus. The three cases of perforation following dilatation of oesophageal strictures which we are reporting are of interest as the mechanism of rupture and surgical pathology was different in each case. The result of surgical intervention was gratif...

An unusual case of epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica with extensive stenosis, high perforation, and dissection of the oesophagus forming a "double-barrel" structure is described. Gastric epithelium found in the upper oesophagus is thought to be of metaplastic origin and caused by repeated minor trauma with repair.

Fifty-seven patients with high peptic stricture and the lower oesophagus lined by columnar epithelium are considered from the clinical point of view. Information from 115 cases of low stricture is introduced for comparison. The average age of adult patients was 62 years with a sex incidence of 36 females to 21 males. There is little difference between the symptoms of high and low strictures. Ra...