Liu YL, Liu J, Wang YT. Early esophageal cancer with mucosal bridging in the resting room: A case report. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2025; 17(1): 103404 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i1.103404]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ying-Ling Liu, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, No. 17 Lujiang Road, Hefei 230001, Anhui Province, China. liuyingling@ustc.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2025; 17(1): 103404 Published online Jan 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i1.103404
Early esophageal cancer with mucosal bridging in the resting room: A case report
Ying-Ling Liu, Jie Liu, Ye-Tao Wang
Ying-Ling Liu, Jie Liu, Ye-Tao Wang, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, Anhui Province, China
Co-first authors: Ying-Ling Liu and Jie Liu.
Author contributions: Liu YL and Liu J contributed to the conceptualization, data curation, and formal analysis of the manuscript, they contributed equally to this article, they are the co-first authors of this manuscript; Liu YL conducted the methodology; Wang YT contributed to the supervision, visualization, review and editing of the manuscript; Wang YT and Liu YL contributed to the investigation; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Supported by the Research Project of the Chinese Digestive Early Cancer Physicians’ Joint Growth Program, No. GTCZ-2021-AH-34-0012.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained in writing from the patient to publish this report and any accompanying images. This case has been approved by the patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ying-Ling Liu, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, No. 17 Lujiang Road, Hefei 230001, Anhui Province, China. liuyingling@ustc.edu.cn
Received: November 20, 2024 Revised: December 15, 2024 Accepted: January 7, 2025 Published online: January 16, 2025 Processing time: 59 Days and 5.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Patients diagnosed with esophageal mucosal bridges often experience symptoms such as chest pain and dysphagia, which pose considerable challenges for endoscopic surgical interventions.
CASE SUMMARY
We present a case involving early-stage esophageal cancer discovered in a resting room, notable for the rare manifestation of esophageal mucosal bridging. Following a comprehensive multidisciplinary discussion and the development of a treatment strategy, we proceeded with endoscopic submucosal dissection for the patient. During the procedure, we encountered operational challenges due to the presence of a diverticulum and a partial absence of the muscularis propria. To facilitate the retraction of a portion of the resected specimen, we utilized dental floss. Ultimately, we successfully excised the entire lesion. After a three-day period of fasting with a water-only diet, subsequent iodine water cholangiography did not indicate any perforations, and the patient was advised to transition to a liquid diet. The patient was discharged five days post-operation. A follow-up endoscopy conducted three months later revealed scar-like changes in the mid-esophagus, with the patient reporting no significant discomfort.
CONCLUSION
In summary, although esophageal mucosal bridges are rarely documented, they should be considered in the differential diagnosis of mechanical dysphagia. Furthermore, endoscopic therapy represents a feasible approach for their management.
Core Tip: Currently, there exists a paucity of documented cases of submucosal bridges in the esophagus, and no instances have been reported linking submucosal bridges to carcinogenesis within diverticula. In the case under discussion, the tubular structure of the submucosal bridge, along with the detailed pathological features indicative of carcinogenesis, was clarified through the application of thin sectioning of the surgical specimen obtained after endoscopic submucosal dissection.
