Esophagus & Autonomic Function

[gertie]

I had an elderly neighbor that suddenly became unable to swallow. The dr's dilated the esophagus & he would be able to eat a small meal & it would collapse again. This happened 3 or 4 times being dilated again after each collapse. The doc had never had this happen before nor did he have an explanation as to why it happened.

Is it possible that the person had autonomic nervous system failure & that is why the esophagus collapse? Doesn't the ANS control that also? Thanks.

[janiedelite]

He also could have had strictures from reflux that needed to be dilated, but I'm not sure why his esophagus kept collapsing.

[anna]

My father in law had some issues with collapsing esophagus, related to his PAF type illness, but by that time, he had many more advanced ANS symptoms, which seems to be the way things progress with such conditions.

Lots of other things might have been to blame for reoccurring collapses, it might have even been age related.

[gertie]

Thanks everyone. It's sad to watch someone suffer in this condition. It's bad when drs don't know what

causes these problems.

[lieze]

It sounds like time for a gastric feeding tube if the esophagus keeps collapsing.

I wonder if it could even be related to a stroke.

[ramakentesh]

The ANS controls prettymuch all involuntary activity of the body.

[vemee]

I don't have an answer but In March of this year I had surgery for a paraesophageal hernia. That is when the stomach goes through a hole in the diaphram and ends up with the majority being in the chest cavity. The danger is that the stomach can be strangled by the diaphragm. After my surgery, food would get stuck in my throat and I would throw it up. I had a barium swallow done and it showed that even liquids get backed up in my throat. I had my throat ballooned but it only helped for a week. Another surgery found that the mesh used to cover the hole in the diaphragm had come undone and was pressing in my throat which they corrected. Afterwards I could swallow a lot better but food will occasionally get stuck in my throat. I can live with it but I did not have that problem before surgery.

The reason I am posting this is because I have noticed that when I do have food get stuck in my throat I also feel that my body is not right in a pots type of way. I don't have trouble swallowing every time I feel potsy but it does seem like every time I have trouble swallowing I have some type of pots symptoms. I don't think it is a structure problem otherwise I would have a lot more occurrences than I do now. Also muscle relaxers have helped; so for some reason my throat is tightening on it's own. I guess autonomic dysfunction could very well be the cause of it but I can't figure out how the surgery caused the problem.

[Chaos]

According to the neuro at Mayo I've seen, surgery itself can cause neuropathy. He said that studies have shown "full blown neuropathy" as a side effect of surgery. If you had POTS pre-existing the surgery, maybe it was worsened by the surgery itself.?

Like you Vemee I have a lot of swallowing issues at various times. Some days I choke or aspirate just about anything I try to swallow. Some days it's really severe esophageal muscle spasms. And some days it's fine. Some days I lose my voice (usually when the POTS is most pronounced) without any sign of a cold etc. I figure it must be autonomic in nature because anything structural would likely be a lot more consistent than what I'm having.

[vemee]

Chaos, that is really interesting information about surgery causing neuropathy; especially since you got it from a top notch source. I've had pots for most my life and neuropathy for 7 years; I guess I can add another symptom to my pots list (not that I wanted another one). I agree with you that if your problems were structural they would be a lot more consistent and frequent.