Acute Upper-Airway Obstruction in a Patient With Achalasia, ,

The most common presenting symptoms of achalasia are dysphagia, recurrent regurgitation, and gradual weight loss. Surprisingly, many achalasia patients tolerate considerable esophageal distention without complaint. In very few cases is respiratory distress the only presenting symptom of achalasia. We describe such a case. [Turkot S, Golzman B, Kogan J, Ben Valid E, Lebovici O, Oren S: Acute upper-airway obstruction in a patient with achalasia. Ann Emerg Med May 1997;29:687-689.]