[Acute upper airway obstruction caused by esophageal achalasia--a rare complication]

Acute upper-airway obstruction due to achalasia of the oesophagus is a rare condition. Two newly-treated cases are described. It is stressed that when the diagnosis is established, one should primarily decompress the entire oesophagus. The final treatment is balloon dilation or in some cases Heller's extramucosal myotomy.