Esophageal Achalasia in Parkinson’s Disease: Diagnosis and Management of a Rare Case

Autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease involving the gastrointestinal track due to the presence of inclusions of a-synuclein in the vagus nerve and in the Meissner and Auerbach plexus of the enteric nervus system. Esophageal achalasia characterized by a degenerative loss of the inhibitory neurons in the myenteric plexus that causes a failure of the lower esophageal sphincter to relax leading to dysphagia, regurgitation, retrosternal pain and weight loss. We report a case of a Parkinson disease patient presented to our department due to upper gastrointestinal symptoms, diagnosed with esophageal achalasia by high resolution esophageal manometry and successfully treated with pneumatic dilatation.