Veseliny Eduard, Jarčuška Peter, Zakuciová Mária, Hildebrand Tomáš
This article deals with contemporary view on esophageal motility disorders in perspective of their diagnosis, classification and treatment. Esophageal motility disorders comprise various abnormal manometric patterns which usually present with dysphagia or chest pain. Some of them, such as achalasia, are diseases with a well defined pathology, characteristic manometric features, and good response to treatment. Other disorders, such as diffuse esophageal spasm and hypercontracting esophagus, have no well defined pathology and could represent a range of motility changes associated with subtle neuropathic changes, gastroesophageal reflux, and anxiety states. Although manometric patterns have been defined for these disorders, the relation with symptoms is poorly defined and the response to medical or surgical therapy unpredictable. Hypocontracting esophagus is generally caused by weak musculature commonly associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease. Secondary esophageal motility disorders can be caused by collagen vascular diseases, Chagas‘ disease, diabetes, alcoholism, myxedema, multiple sclerosis, amyloidosis, idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction, or the ageing process.