Black Oesophagus: Acute Oesophageal Necrosis Syndrome (AEN) – a case study

Abstract

A 42 year old man was referred by the vascular surgeons for upper endoscopy after he had an incident of hematemesis while he was waiting for surgery. He was a type II diabetic with macrovascular disease. On endoscopy the whole  oesophagus was black with grey necrotic areas in between. The black tissue ended abruptly at the gastro-oesophageal junction. Sucralfate was prescribed at that stage, but he died later that night.