A lymphangioma can rarely be encountered in the esophagus. Multiple lymphangiomas can occur in lymphangiomatosis.
Lymphangiomas of the esophagus are usually asymptomatic. They may be encountered during endoscopy or an imaging study performed for another process.
Appearance:
(1) one or more submucosal masses
(2) pedunculated mass
A needle aspirate from a lymphangioma with sufficient size should produce chyle.
The diagnosis requires demonstrating submucosal tangle of lymphatics. This can usually be seen in a pedunculated lesion. Endoscopic biopsy of a nonpedunculated mass may be too superficial to include vessels and so result in a false negative.
Differential diagnosis:
(1) hemangioma
(2) mixed hemangio-lymphangioma
(3) esophageal varix
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