Causes of upper gastrointestinal tract obstruction

Abstract

Obstruction of the upper gastrointestinal tract, caused by blocked passage in the oesophagus, stomach or duodenum, is an important clinical and diagnostic problem in gastroenterological practice. The typical symptoms are dysphagia, postprandial vomiting, epigastric pain and weight loss. Post-inflammatory oesophageal lesions associated with reflux oesophagitis are the most common cause of obstruction. Other common causes include foreign bodies, neoplasms, chemical burns of the oesophagus and radiation-induced stenosis. In more than 2/3 cases, foreign bodies are localised in the proximal part of the oesophagus, but anatomical abnormalities, such as a Schatzki ring or post-inflammatory stenosis, increase the risk of food bolus impaction in the distal part of the oesophagus. Radiotherapy of head and neck tumours may cause stenosis, which affects more than 7% of patients treated this way. For the stomach and duodenum, 50–80% of obstruction cases are associated with neoplastic processes, with gastric cancer and pancreatic adenocarcinoma accounting for 35% and 15–25% of these cases, respectively. Mild causes of peripyloric obstruction include gastric and duodenal peptic ulcer, peritoneal adhesions, gastric polyps and Crohn’s disease. Symptoms of temporary pylorus obstruction can be caused by large, gastric hyperplastic pedunculated polyps. Therapeutic endoscopy is the most commonly used method for upper gastrointestinal tract obstruction. Depending on the cause, it involves foreign body removal, balloon enteroscopy, stenting with self-expanding metallic stents, and, in the case of treatment failure, surgical resection or palliative gastrojejunostomy.