1997 Volume 58 Issue 8 Pages 1777-1780
Esophageal diverticulum, mostly found on gastrointestinal examinations accidentally, is rarely considered an indication for surgery because of any symptoms. Especially, giant diverticula with the size of larger than 5×5cm are rare. We report a case of giant epiphrenic esophageal diverticulum.
A 69-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of recently increasing dysphagia and vomiting. She had been diagnosed as having an esophageal diverticulum about 10 years before, but had not received any treatments. On admission esophageal fluoroscopic examination and endoscopy revealed an esophageal diverticulum, with the size of 7.5×7.5cm, in the left wall of the inferior thoracic segment of the esophagus. An operation was indicated because the patient had symptoms. Diverticulectomy was performed under left thoracotomy. Pathologically, it was pseudo diverticulum with enlarged lamina propria lacking proper muscle layer. After diverticulectomy, preoperative symptoms were completely disappeared.
