Esophagogastroduodenoscopy for the family physician.

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is most commonly performed for evaluation of epigastric pain, severe heartburn, chronic nausea and other dyspepsia syndromes that are not relieved by medical therapy. It should not be performed as an in-office procedure in patients with unstable angina, respiratory failure, active upper gastrointestinal bleeding or hemodynamic instability. Although office esophagogastroduodenoscopy is safe for low-risk patients, the risks associated with anesthesia and the need for postprocedure observation may require other patients to undergo the procedure in a hospital setting. Use of a local anesthetic throat spray reduces the gag response that occurs when the endoscope is swallowed. Sedation is commonly achieved with intravenous administration of a benzodiazepine plus a narcotic, and the effects of these drugs can be rapidly reversed. Complications are rare and most frequently result from medications rather than from the procedure itself.

Carcinoma of the esophagus with adenoid cystic differentiation.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the esophagus is a relatively rare lesion which characteristically exhibits a clinically aggressive behavior. In spite of this aggressive nature, it is most often referred to as a counterpart of the more common adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary gland origin, a comparatively indolent tumor. In this report, the clinical and pathologic findings in a series of six cases of esophageal adenoid cystic carcinomas are contrasted with those of typical salivary gland lesions, and also compared to similar tumors exhibiting "adenoid cystic" differentiation arising in other extrasalivary gland sites. It is concluded that the esophageal tumors, as well as certain similar lesions arising in other extrasalivary gland sites, represent a class of poorly differentiated basaloid neoplasms distinct both clinically and morphologically from the common adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary gland origin.