[Barrett esophagus. An epidemiological study in an area of Spain].

Barrett's esophagus is defined as the replacement of squamous normal mucosa by columnar specialized epithelium, being its main importance its preneoplastic potential. In this retrospective study on 5303 gastrointestinal endoscopies, done in 8 years, we describe, for the first time the gross prevalence and incidence rates in a Spanish country. We found 28 cases of Barrett's esophagus, what means a prevalence rate of 0.53% of all endoscopies, and an incidence rate of 26.4/100,000 inhabitants of our hospital referred population, with an estimated incidence rate of 3.3 cases/100,000 inhabitants/year. The prevalence rate of Barrett's esophagus adenocarcinoma--3 cases--was 10.71%, and the incidence rate of 1 case/104 Barrett's esophagus/year, follow-up similar to that of other authors.