Esophageal hematoma. Four new cases, a review, and proposed etiology.

We report four cases of esophageal hematoma and emphasize that endoscopically and radiographically it may simulate a neoplasm. After a review of 26 cases, we found that patients with normal hemostasis often had esophageal hematoma occur distally after vomiting. Most of these hematomas probably originated from a Mallory-Weiss laceration. In contrast, patients with impaired hemostasis had esophageal hematoma occur proximally or at multiple sites. Many of these hematomas occurred spontaneously, without a history of vomiting, and probably resulted from impaired coagulation. Regardless of etiology most esophageal hematomas were associated with a benign course.