Esophageal achalasia with recurrent aspiration pneumoniae treated by laparoscopic Heller myotomy

We report here a case of aspiration pneumonia diagnosed in a 69-year old Caucasian woman, presenting with acute respiratory failure, left pleural effusion, and right posterior basal lung consolidation revealed by chest imaging. In the last ten years, she has been hospitalized several times for community-acquired pneumonia. For this reason, and the presence of dysphagia during the admission to our respiratory ward, we suspected recurrent aspiration pneumonia which was found secondary to achalasia. At 15-month follow up after laparoscopic Heller myotomy with anti-reflux procedure the patient has remained asymptomatic