[Cricopharyngeal achalasia, exceptional cause of dysphagia in newborn (author's transl)].

Dysphagia of the newborn and the infant presents with many varied causes, neurological, malformative, turmoral or functional. Among the latter, cricopharyngeal achalasia is an exceptional entity open to discussion. Suspected as early as the first month, presenting with difficulty in swallowing with choking episodes and coughing up of food without any obvious etiology. Profile roetgengraphic studies will allow the diagnosis to be made. The characteristic sign is a round and regular posterior narrowing on the posterior wall of the esophagus (C4 - C5 level) with enlargement of the hypopharynx. This narrowing is a constant finding. This pathological entity, an absence of relaxation of the cricopharyngeus muscle during the third period of swallowing, well-known in the adult patient, has only exceptionally been described among newborn children. In the following case study, cure has only been obtained by an extra mucosal myotomy of the esophagus at the age of seven months. The discussion, considering the five cases reported in pediatric journals, covers the diagnostic elements, the physiopathology of the disease, the risks presented during evolution without treatment. Therapy must be precocious and surgical.