The Korean Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery  2009;42(5):657-661

Intramural Dissection and Mucosal Laceration of the Esophagus in a Patient Who Was on Antiplatelets Medication : A case report.

Kyung Hwa KIM 1 ; Ja Hong KUH ; Jung Moon LEE

Affiliations

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Keywords

Esophagus; Dissection

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Intramural esophageal dissection is a rare disorder that's characterized by a lengthy laceration between the mucosal and submucosal layers of the esophageal wall, and the esophageal wall is without perforation. The three different types of acute esophageal injury are a mucosal tear (Mallory-Weiss syndrome), full-thickness rupture (Boerhaave's syndrome) and intramural esophageal dissection. Most intramural esophageal dissections respond to conservative management with a very good prognosis. This rare condition should be considered in patients who present with acute chest pain, dysphagia or odynophagia, and particularly in the presence of a bleeding disorder or where there has been recent administration of antiplatelet medication, anticoagulants or thrombolytics to avoid inappropriate treatment with surgery. We present here a rare case of intramural dissection of the esophagus that occurred when the patient was taking antiplatelet medication.