Endoscopic evaluation of patients presenting with dysphagia at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To determine the common endoscopic findings and their frequencies in patients presenting with dysphagia. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Gastroenterology, Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi from October 2020 to June 2021. It included 315 patients who underwent endoscopy in the department. Patients had age 12 years or more with dysphagia of duration one week or more. Results: Median age of participants was 53 (IQR = 40 - 65) years. Out of them, 52.1% were male. The most frequent finding was esophageal growth seen in 29.84%, followed by esophageal stricture in 17.46% and gastro-esophageal reflux disease in 7.94%. Frequency of normal examination and achalasia decreased with advancing age while frequency of esophageal growth (p = 0.001) and stricture (p < 0.001) was significantly higher among patients with disease duration of 6 months or more. Conclusion: Esophageal growth and esophageal stricture followed by gastro-esophageal reflux disease/reflux esophagitis were the commonest causes of dysphagia in our study. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy should be used in evaluation of dysphagia since its underlying disorder can be serious and may need timely diagnosis and expeditious treatment.

Automated summary

This study found that esophageal growth and esophageal stricture were the most common causes of dysphagia in patients, followed by gastro-esophageal reflux disease. The frequency of these causes was associated with age and disease duration.