Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-28-2025
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Acute esophageal necrosis, or black esophagus, is a rare clinical phenomenon typically seen in older men after an acute triggering event. It may present with dysphagia due to stricturing or dysmotility, a complication of severe esophageal inflammation.
CASE PRESENTATION: Here we describe a case of a woman with several cardiovascular risk factors who developed black esophagus following diverticular-related hemorrhagic shock and presented with chest pain followed by dysphagia and food impaction likely as a result of mucosal sloughing and altered esophageal motility. The diagnosis was confirmed endoscopically and pathology revealed coagulative necrosis due to ischemia.
DISCUSSION: Acute esophageal necrosis should be suspected in patients with cardiovascular risk factors and hemodynamic compromise and may be confirmed with endoscopy. As dysphagia may complicate this condition, slow advancement of diet while healing is advised.
Recommended Citation
Noverati, Nicholas; Torre, Beatriz; Mostyka, Maria; Choudhary, Cuckoo; Henry, Christopher; Kastenberg, David; and Moleski, Stephanie, "An Unusual Complication of Diverticular Bleed: Dysphagia and Food Impaction from Black Esophagus" (2025). Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers. Paper 114.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/gastro_hepfp/114
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
PubMed ID
40297387
Language
English
Comments
This article is the author's final published version in Case Reposts in Gastroenterology, Volume 19, Issue 1, April 2025, Pages 298-302.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1159/000545171.
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).