Lye Stricture of the Esophagus Complicated by Carcinoma

Five cases of esophageal cancer developed at the site of esophageal lye stricture were reported. Duration of lye stricture was between 13 and 40years, and all 5 cases had taken normal diet without appreciable troubles after recovery from the acute stage of burn till the suspected onset of esophageal malignaney. Outstanding symptoms of this grave condition were rather acute progressive dysphagia and frequent episodes of esophageal foreign bodies, Diagnosis could be confirmed easily by endoscopic biopsy in suspected eases, and all were epidermoid carcinoma histopathologically. Curative resection of this condition was made in neither of the cases, and their prognoses were more grave than other esophageal malignancies in our experience. The development of esophageal carcinoma at the site of corrosive esophagitis with resulting benign stricture has now been suspected as a cause and effect relationship between these two conditions, and Kiviranta: stated that the incidence of esophageal cancer in patients with lye stricture of longer duration is a thousand times higher than normal population. During last one decade the authors experienced 5 cases of esophageal carcinoma developed at the site of lye stricture of the esophagus among about 350 cases of lye burned esophagus at the Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, the National Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. In Korea they still use lye as a detergent in rural area, and there are still many persons ingesting lye for suicidal attempt or on accident. Lye stricture of the esophagus is, therefore, the most common esophageal disease needing surgical procedures, and the authors believe that there will be much more eases of lye stricture complicated by esophageal eareinoma repoted in near future in this Country.