Paterson-Brown Kelly syndrome.

Over a five-year period (September 1987 to August 1992), eight patients, one male and seven females, with a characteristics history of dysphagia due to cervical esophageal webs (Paterson-Brown Kelly syndrome) were encountered. The patients, all Arabs, comprised six Saudi females, one Yemeni female and an Eygptian male. All the patients, except two, were in middle age. The webs, single in five patients and multiple in three, and present at the levels of the 5th, 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, were located in the anterior wall of the esophagus in four patients, circumferential-producing stenosis in three patients, while one patient with multiple webs had both types of location. Associated iron-deficiency anemia was present in all patients, three of them with evident koilonychia. One patient had associated nodular goiter and rheumatoid arthritis while another had a fatal complicating postcricoid carcinoma. The only male patient had associated ulcerative protocolitis. All seven patients without malignant complication of their webs had marked or total resolution of their dysphagia with iron therapy, pharyngoscopy/esophagoscopy, and dilatation. The Paterson-Brown Kelly syndrome of postcricoid dysphagia is discussed briefly.