Pseudoachalasia: A review

Abstract

Pseudoachalasia presents typically like achalasia. It account for only 2.4-4% of patients presenting with achalasia-like symptoms. Clinical, radiologic and endoscopic findings resemble those of achalasia but treatment and prognosis are different in these conditions. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the condition and highlight challenges in diagnosis and distinguishing features between the two conditions. A review of the publications obtained from Medline search, medical libraries, and Google on ‘pseudoachalasia’ and ‘secondary achalasia’ was done. A total of 50 articles were retrieved and used for this review. There has been tremendous efforts towards establishing the diagnosis of pseudoachalasia both clinically and with the use of modern investigative modalities but to date its still difficult to distinguish it from achalasia. Endoscopy, endoscopic ultrasonography and computerized tomography scan have shown promising results.

Keywords: Dysphagia, pseudoachalasia, secondary achalasia