82-year-old woman gets new lease of life after rare esophageal disorder treated in Hyderabad

An 82-year-old woman suffering from Achalasia Cardia, a rare disorder that prevented food from reaching her stomach, has been successfully treated at Aster Prime Hospital in Hyderabad. Doctors performed an advanced POEM procedure, restoring her ability to eat and drink normally.

Hyderabad: An 82-year-old woman, who spent the last two years starving and enduring severe agony due to a rare condition where food would get lodged in her esophagus instead of reaching her stomach, has been successfully treated at Aster Prime Hospital, Hyderabad.

The elderly woman suffered from Achalasia Cardia, where consumed food would flow back out through her mouth and nose as soon as she lay down at night. Over time, her condition worsened to the point where she could swallow neither solid foods nor liquids.

---

Doctors at Aster Prime Hospital successfully performed an advanced ‘Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM)’ procedure, enabling the patient to eat without any discomfort and return to a normal life, a press release said.

“Normally, the food we consume reaches the stomach from the esophagus within 7 to 8 seconds. However, in patients with this disease, the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES), a muscular valve at the end of the esophagus, fails to relax and open. As a result, food gets trapped, leading to regurgitation through the mouth and nose, vomiting while lying down, and severe weight loss. This condition is primarily caused by genetic factors, though past infections can also trigger it,” Dr Kaluvala Harsha Teja, Medical Gastroenterologist, Hepatologist and Therapeutic Endoscopist at Aster Prime Hospital, said.