DYSPHAGIA: CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS AND ETIOLOGICAL PROFILE (ABOUT 290 CASES) MOROCCAN CENTER EXPERIENCE

Aims Dysphagia is a common health problem for consultation in gastroenterology. It is considered to be an alarm symptom requiring the use of endoscopy regardless of the clinical presentation.

The purpose of our study is to evaluate the clinical profile and various etiologies of dysphagia.

Methods This is a retrospective descriptive study were the cases of patients with a complaint of dysphagia were enrolled over the period between (2014-2021).Patients who had an oropharyngeal or neurological cause of dysphagia were excluded.

Results A total of 290 patients were included. with the male/female ratio being 2,02.The mean age of our patients is 37 years [16–76].38% were chronic tobacco users.Dysphagia was organic in 86%, to solids in 75% and mixed in 25%. The associated signs were: deterioration of general condition (18 cases), vomiting (65 cases ), gastroesophageal reflux and epigastralgia (105 cases), regurgitation and odynophagia (33 cases), upper hemorrhage (62 cases). all of our patients underwent an upper digestif endoscopy. The common etiologies were benign stricture (34%) and carcinoma esophagus (20%). Other findings included achalasia (4.6), esophageal candidiasis (21%), esophagitis (6,8%), Barrett’s esophagus (4,5%), foreign body esophagus (1,7%), esophageal diverticulum (1%). In 10,9% of cases no etiology was detected. Treatment strategies depended of the etiology.

Conclusions Dysphagia has diverse etiology, and a majority can be diagnosed by endoscopy. Malignancy is an important cause of dysphagia. Upper digestive endoscopy must be performed in the event of any dysphagia for diagnostic and sometimes therapeutic purposes.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2022