Abstract
Background
Jackhammer esophagus (JE) is a rare disease with unclear clinical features. The objective of this study was to retrospectively compare the clinical characteristics of patients with JE whose symptoms were controlled with conservative treatment, such as observation or medication, versus those who were required surgical treatment, such as surgical myotomy or per oral endoscopic myotomy.
Methods
Eighteen patients with JE were included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups: patients who responded to conservative treatment (C group) and patients who were refractory to conservative treatment and underwent surgery (S group). Patient age, sex, disease duration before treatment, symptoms, esophagogastroduodenoscopic (EGD) findings, esophagographic findings, esophageal wall thickness on computed tomography, number of swallows with hypercontractile peristalsis in 10 water swallows, and maximum distal contractile integral (DCI) were compared between the groups.
Results
Thirteen of 18 patients (72%) were in the C group and five of 18 (28%) were in the S group. There were no significant differences in age, sex, disease duration before treatment, symptoms, EGD findings, esophagographic findings, esophageal wall thickness, or number of swallows with hypercontractile peristalsis between the groups. On Starlet high-resolution manometry, the median maximum DCI value was significantly higher in the S group (32,651 mmHg-s-cm) than in the C group (17,926 mmHg-s-cm) (P = 0.0136).
Conclusions
JE treatment should be carefully considered because some patients require surgery, whereas others are controlled with conservative treatment alone. A higher DCI value in patients with JE may predict resistance to conservative treatment.
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The authors thank Ms. Satoko Nishimura for administrative assistance.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions. This was a retrospective study and we used the patient opt-out consent method concerning participation in this study.
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Kawami, N., Hoshino, S., Hoshikawa, Y. et al. Differences in clinical characteristics between conservative-treatment-response group and refractory (surgical-treatment) group in patients with jackhammer esophagus. Esophagus 18, 138–143 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-020-00748-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-020-00748-3