What Are the Types of Esophageal Diseases?

Esophageal diseases mainly include esophageal cancer, esophageal leiomyoma, and esophageal hiatus hernia. The symptoms of esophageal cancer are mainly progressive dysphagia. Because this cancer has a high incidence rate and high fatality rate in China, it is necessary to seek medical attention promptly once such symptoms appear. About half of patients with esophageal leiomyoma have no symptoms and are discovered during examinations for other diseases. The symptoms generally manifest as mild difficulty in swallowing. Esophageal cancer is a malignant tumor, and progressive dysphagia is its most typical clinical symptom. This disease is one of the common malignancies in humans. China is a country with a high incidence of esophageal cancer and one of the countries with the highest mortality rate from this disease, with an annual average mortality rate of 14.59 per 100,000. About half of patients with esophageal leiomyoma have no symptoms and are discovered during chest X-ray examination or gastrointestinal radiography for other diseases. The symptoms, if any, are mostly mild, with the most common being mild difficulty in swallowing, which rarely affects normal eating. The course of the disease can last from several months to more than ten years. Even when the tumor is quite large, its slow development and mild obstructive symptoms are of great significance in differential diagnosis, which is quite different from the short-term progressive dysphagia caused by esophageal cancer. The symptoms of patients with esophageal hiatus hernia vary depending on the content of the hernia. Their common clinical features include premature satiety during eating, vomiting after eating a large amount of food, upper abdominal discomfort, dysphagia, and gurgling sounds in the chest. Dysphagia is caused by the herniated viscera compressing the esophagus from the outside. The viscera herniated into the chest compress the lungs and occupy a part of the chest cavity, which can cause coughing and dyspnea after eating. If complications such as obstruction, stenosis, necrosis, or perforation of the hernia contents occur, the patient may experience shock and gastrointestinal obstruction symptoms, which can be fatal in severe cases.