Acute esophageal hemorrhage from a vagal neurilemoma.

A man with known systemic neurofibromatosis developed an acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage while hospitalized after a neurosurgical procedure. Endoscopic evaluation showed a vascular lesion with an appearance consistent with a Dieulafoy-type lesion in the distal esophagus. Despite multiple endoscopic procedures with attempted coagulation of the bleeding lesion, the patient continued to have life-threatening hemorrhaging. At thoractomy, a tumor was found to arise from the vagus nerve at the site of bleeding. This tumor was resected and histologically determined to be a neurilemoma. Acute bleeding into the esophagus associated with this type of tumor has not been previously reported.