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Clinical presentation
Within 4 years, a 58 (to 62)-year-old man attended the emergency department five times because of acute oesophageal food impaction. Other diagnoses included alcohol and tobacco abuse, arterial hypertension, and coronary sclerosis with cardiac infarction and coronary bypass.
On each presentation, the patient complained about mild retrosternal pain and an inability to swallow anything including his own saliva. Vital signs were normal, abdominal examination was unremarkable. Routine laboratory parameters were normal. At first presentation, electrocardiography and serum troponin were normal; chest X-ray suggested moderate lung oedema and no signs of aspiration.
Each time, wedged food was removed endoscopically from various locations in the upper, middle and lower oesophagi within hours after admission. One day after the first bolus removal, double-contrast oesophagography was performed (see figure 1). In endoscopies …
Footnotes
Contributors FH cared for the patient, performed gastroscopies and wrote the manuscript. AGS assessed radiological findings, researched literature and cowrote the manuscript. SL cared for the patient, researched literature and edited the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, conduct, reporting or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.