Central nervous system lymphoma presenting as dysphagia

Two patients are presented having lymphomatous involvement of the central nervous system in whom dysphagia was the predominant symptom. All indicated studies failed to reveal evidence of direct esophageal involvement, and the dysphagia improved during treatment of the neural component. Esophageal manometric studies revealed abnormalities of the striated muscle portion of the esophagus. These two case histories suggest that invasion of the central nervous system with lymphoma may produce abnormalities of the neuromuscular control of esophageal function resulting in dysphagia.