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...

OBJECTIVES Barrett oesophagus is replacement of squamous epithelium to specialised intestinal metaplasia. It is associated with an increased risk for adenocarcinoma which develops through dysplasia. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the relative age of occurrence and incidence of dysplasia in this part of our country. METHODS Between January 1999 and June 2002 we diagnosed ...

BACKGROUND The efficacy of endoscopic biopsy surveillance of Barrett's oesophagus in reducing mortality from oesophageal cancer has not been confirmed. AIMS To investigate the impact of endoscopic biopsy surveillance on pathological stage and clinical outcome of Barrett's carcinoma. METHODS A clinicopathological comparison was made between patients who initially presented with oesophageal a...

OBJECTIVES To review the benefit of an endoscopic surveillance programme for patients with Barrett's oesophagus. DESIGN Observational study. SETTING University teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS 409 patients in whom Barrett's oesophagus was identified during 1984-94; 143 were entered into the annual surveillance programme. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Development of dysplasia and cancer and morta...