Case presentation
A 76-year-old previously healthy male presenting with ascending paralysis was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Due to respiratory failure, he underwent tracheostomy and had nasojejunal and nasogastric feeding tube placed fluoroscopically without immediately apparent complication. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy performed for abdominal pain demonstrated a mucosal bridge at 25 cm from the incisors (Figure 1).
Figure 1:
Endoscopic finding of esophageal mucosal bridge.
Discussion
An oesophageal mucosal bridge is a smooth muscle that extends and connects across the lumen of the esophagus, rarely found through upper endoscopy.1 It is described to be visualized as a “double lumen” on upper endoscopy due to the connecting smooth muscle, and can cause various symptoms including dysphagia and bleeding.1 However, mucosal bridges are often asymptomatic in nature, which probably contributes to underdiagnosis. The aetiology of this condition may either be congenital or acquired secondary to oesophageal trauma and inflammation.2 One of the known causes of oesophageal mucosal bridge is nasoenteric tube insertion and use associated with oesophageal mucosal injury.3 As this condition is exceedingly rare, more studies and case reports are needed to understand the full scope of pathogenesis, aetiology, and effective treatment.
Contributor Information
Dain (Raina) Kim, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Matthew Woo, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Calgary, 1403 29 St NW, Calgary, AB T2N 2T9, Canada.
Author contributions
D.K. was involved in the drafting of the manuscript. M.W. was involved in study concept and design, and drafting the manuscript.
Funding
None declared.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Data availability
There are no data associated with this manuscript.
References
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Associated Data
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Data Availability Statement
There are no data associated with this manuscript.