Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy For Treatment Of Esophageal Achalasia

Esophageal achalasia is characterized by reduced numbers of neurons in the esophageal myenteric plexuses and reduced peristaltic activity, making it difficult for patients to swallow food and possibly leading to complications such as regurgitation, coughing, choking, aspiration pneumonia, esophagitis, ulceration, and weight loss. Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) is a novel endoscopic procedure that uses the oral cavity as a natural orifice entry point to perform myotomy of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). This procedure is intended to reduce the total number of incisions needed and thus the overall invasiveness of surgery. Gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy (G-POEM) is a similar procedure with the exception that it myotomizes the pylorus rather than LES.