Acute necrotizing esophagitis: case report and review of the literature

Acute necrotizing esophagitis (ANE) is a rare disease typically presenting as a diffuse blackening of the esophageal mucosa with necrosis on histologic examination. For this reason, ANE is often considered to be synonymous with'black esophagus'. Recently, however, cases of ANE have been reported with a "non-black" esophagus, and this is believed to be an earlier or later stage in the evolution of ANE to/from its black form. Here we present a case report of ANE that illustrates such an evolution in endoscopic appearance from non-black to black esophagus. We also provide a review of the literature to highlight what is currently known about this color change and other clinical aspects of this relatively uncommon esophageal disease.