The dark areas of esophagus: Esophageal melanocytosis

Abstract

Esophageal melanocytosis characterized by melanocytic proliferation in the epithelium of esophagus is extremely rare disease. Aberrant migration of melanocytes during embryogenesis occurs in a small number of cases. Hence, the occurrence of benign and malignant melanocytic lesions is now known entities in esophagus. Melanocytosis is a benign entity and is very rare with an incidence of 0.07%–2.1%. The etiology of these lesions is not known. Endoscopic, histologic, and staining characteristics of two lesions are described. These cases were diagnosed from 450 endoscopic biopsies studied over a period of 10 months.