Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) for nutcracker esophagus. Three cases with 12 months follow-up.

INTRODUCTION: Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) has been introduced as a new treatment of achalasia, and studies are emerging on POEM treatment of other esophageal motility disorders. The effects of medical treatment, botox injections and dilatations are often limited in patients with severe nutcracker esophagus (NE). We therefore decided to perform POEM in three patients with severe NE.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Informed consent was provided. POEM was performed under general anesthesia on the distal esophagus and upper stomach. At 3 months, 6 months and 1 year postoperatively all patients had clinical follow-up, barium swallow and high-resolution manometry.

RESULTS: All patients displayed marked improvement with a significant reduction in Eckardt score at follow-up after 1 year, from 10, 10 and 11 to 3, 1 and 1, respectively. During follow-up, the patients were diagnosed with increased reflux index and one patient was diagnosed with gastroparesis.

CONCLUSION: Considering our results, treating severe NE with POEM has to be considered in the future; however, further studies have to confirm this.