Esophageal disorders at the Lome Teaching Hospital. A review of 1505 cases.

A five-year retrospective study (January 1991 - December 1995) identified 1505 cases of esophageal disease in 1240 patients, 737 male and 503 female. Mean age was 40 years (range, 16-86 years). Esophagitis (including mycotic esophagisis) was the leading diagnosis (47.11%) followed by hiatus hernia (36.94%) and esophageal varices (8.31%). The few malignancies (2.86%) were generally epidermoid carcinomas (94.29%). The main presenting symptoms were epigastric pain (55.73%), dysphagia pain (10.26%), and retrosternal pain (10.26%).