PATERSON-BROWN KELLY SYNDROME

Over a five-year period (September 1987 to August 1992), eight patient s, one male and seven females, with a characteristic history of dyspha gia due to cervical esophageal webs (Paterson-Brown Kelly syndrome) we re encountered. The patients, all Arabs, comprised six Saudi females, one Yemeni female and an Egyptian male. All the patients, except two, were in middle age. The webs, single in five patients and multiple in three, and present at the levels of the 5th, 6th and 7th cervical vert ebrae, were located in the anterior wall of the esophagus in four pati ents, circumferential-producing stenosis in three patients, while one patient with multiple webs had both types of location. Associated iron -deficiency anemia was present in all patients, three of them with evi dent koilonychia. One patient had associated nodular goiter and rheuma toid arthritis while another had a fatal complicating postcricoid carc inoma. The only male patient had associated ulcerative proctocolitis. All seven patients without malignant complication of their webs had ma rked or total resolution of their dysphagia with iron therapy, pharyng oscopy/esophagoscopy, and dilatation. The Paterson-Brown Kelly syndrom e of postcricoid dysphagia is discussed briefly.