Pathology of oesophagitis

Abstract

Endoscopic oesophageal biopsies are common in daily pathology practice. Inflammation and damage of the oesophageal mucosa is known as oesophagitis and is common worldwide. A variety of physical, chemical and infectious agents cause oesophagitis. The oesophagus has a limited range of responses to a wide variety of injuries, and so histopathological features of different diseases often overlap. The pathologist is reliant on the endoscopist for the 'macroscopic description' of the oesophagus. Access to the endoscopic images enhances the pathologist's overall interpretation of the case. Correlating clinical, endoscopic and microscopic findings may be crucial in arriving at the correct diagnosis. In this review, we present clinicopathological descriptions of the major types of oesophagitis.