A case of black esophagus with histopathologic description and characterization

Abstract

Black esophagus, or acute necrotizing esophagitis, is a blackening of the esophagus that is usually distal with a sharp demarcation at the gastroesophageal border. Black esophagus is known to the gastroenterology community; however, to our knowledge it is virtually unknown in the pathology literature with only a single instance described in 1967. It is thought to occur as a poorly elucidated ischemic phenomenon. We report a case of black esophagus in a 45-year-old woman with a history of cocaine and alcohol abuse who was found unresponsive after a vague 2-day illness. On autopsy examination, the esophagus was black with ischemic necrosis of the mucosa, submucosa, and muscularis propria including a diffuse acute inflammatory infiltrate and brown pigmentation limited to the mucosa. Positive periodic acid-Schiff and negative iron stains suggest that the pigment is lipofuscin, likely secondary to ischemia.