Infectious Esophagitis and Organisms

Abstract

The esophagus is not susceptible to a significant number of infections. There is no esophageal equivalent to Helicobacter pylori or Clostridium difficile and no epidemic infection to compare with cholera. Instead, a few esophageal infections (eg, Candida and herpesvirus) that are more likely to occur in immunocompromised individuals infect the surface epithelium and are illustrated in this chapter. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) also involves the esophagus in its usual location (endothelial cells beneath the epithelium), but we omitted this because it looks exactly like CMV-infected endothelium everywhere else in the body. Bacteria are sometimes encountered in esophageal biopsies, and there are a few illustrations of them and their significance. We also included something that looks like a condyloma because human papillomavirus is everywhere these days, and the esophagus is not immune. Finally, we have inserted a surprise organism.