Esophageal arteriovenous malformation, a rare cause of significant upper gastrointestinal bleeding: Case report and review of literature

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are a well-known source of bleeding with colon being the most common site, but they can also occur in rare locations like the esophagus which may present with life threatening bleeding. We report the case of a 51-year-old male with end stage renal disease (ESRD) presenting with hematemesis and acute on chronic anemia. Further investigation showed an esophageal AVM which is an unusual location and it was successfully treated with an endoscopic clip instead of argon plasma coagulation (APC) due to its challenging location and esophageal wall motion from breathing. The patient continued to be asymptomatic without any upper and lower GI bleeding during his 20 months follow up period after the endoscopic management. Review of literature showed only 10 cases of AVMs involving esophagus and the average age of presentation was 52 years with a male predominance. We also provide an overview of those cases in the discussion section below.