Table 1.

Differential Diagnosis of Dysphagia

Oropharyngeal dysphagia	Esophageal dysphagia
Neuromuscular Disease	Neuromuscular Disease
Neuropathic Diseases	Achalasia
Stoke	Scleroderma
Brain stem tumors	Diffuse esophageal spasm
Amyotreophic lateral sclerosis	Nutcracker esophagus
Multiple sclerosis	Non-specific spastic esophageal motility disorders
Hungtington’s disease	Paraneoplastic syndromes
Parkinson’s Disease	Chagas disease
Dementia	Vagal nerve injury
Poliomyelitis	Idiopathic hypomotility
Tabes dorsalis	Connective tissue disease
Diabetes melittus	Diabetes Mellitus
Recurrent laryngealnerve injury	Hypothyroidism
Paraneoplastic syndromes
Diptheria
Rabies	Structural lesions
Lead poisioning	Peptic stricture
	Reflux esophagitis
Myopathic Diseases	Esophageal carcinoma
Inflammatory myopathies	Benign esophageal tumor
Polymyositis	Esophageal web
Dermatomyositis	Corrosive damage
Scleroderma	Post-surgical change
Mixed connective tissue disease	Diverticula
Muscular dystrophies	Foreign body
Myasthenia gravis	Post-radiation change
Hyperthyroidism	Scleroderma
Cricopharyngeal achalasia	Amyloidosis
	Vascular anomalies
Structural lesions	Vertebral osteophytes
Oropharyngeal carcinoma	Mediastinal masses
Benign esophageal tumor
Inflammatory disease
Diverticulum
Esophageal webs
Cervical spondylosis
Anterior mediastinal masses
Cervical spondylosis
Corrosive damage
Post-surgical change
Foreign body
Post-radiation changes

Source: Yamada T, ed. Textbook of Gastroenterology, 4th edn. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2003 (Modified)