Early esophageal adenocarcinoma arising in a short segment of Barrett's mucosa after total gastrectomy.

A 66-yr-old man had undergone a total gastrectomy with esophagojejunostomy for gastric cancer 29 yr previously. Soon after the operation, he began to suffer frequent bile regurgitation and subsequent alkaline reflux esophagitis. A small esophageal tumor was found incidentally above the esophagojejunostomy at a follow-up endoscopy, and he subsequently underwent a lower esophagectomy in 1995. The resected specimen revealed evidence of an early adenocarcinoma arising in a short segment of columnar cell-lined esophagus which had not been grossly evident prior to the esophagectomy. The present case indicates that columnar metaplasia with a neoplastic potential can be induced in the esophagus by the chronic reflux of duodenal contents in the absence of gastric acid.