An "esophageal rosette" sign is useful for predicting favorable outcomes in peroral endoscopic myotomy for esophageal achalasia.

Background: An "esophageal rosette" (ER) sign is one of the endoscopic findings in primary esophageal achalasia. We investigated whether ER was associated with the therapeutic efficacy of peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM).

Methods: The clinical characteristics and short-term outcomes of POEM were retrospectively evaluated in 69 patients who underwent the procedure for esophageal achalasia. The patients were divided into two groups according to the presence of an ER sign (ER and non-ER groups). Clinical success was defined as the post-POEM Eckardt score of three or less.

Results: On preoperative endoscopy, 55 (79.7%) patients exhibited ER. The patients in the ER group had a longer disease duration than those in the non-ER group (7.4 vs. 2.7 years, P = 0.0011), although the Eckardt scores before POEM were similar between the two groups. No differences were observed in POEM outcomes between the two groups, including procedure time, length of myotomy, hospital stay, and adverse events. The clinical success of POEM was more frequent in the ER group than in the non-ER group (96.2% vs. 78.6%, P = 0.027). Although the changes in the total Eckardt score and integrated relaxation pressure did not differ between the two groups, dysphagia in the Eckardt score significantly improved in the ER group.

Conclusions: The data suggest that POEM for esophageal achalasia with ER could lead to favorable therapeutic outcomes, particularly dysphagia. The presence of ER may help determine the optimal treatment for esophageal achalasia.