Chinese medicine evidence-based treatment of fungal esophagitis

  Fungal esophagitis mostly grows when broad-spectrum antibiotics are applied for a long time and the body is immunocompromised, but there are also short-term applications of broad-spectrum antibiotics after surgery that can also cause fungal esophagitis. Candida infection is the most common. The main manifestations of fungal esophagitis are painful swallowing, dysphagia, retrosternal discomfort and burning sensation, pharyngeal discomfort, and a chronic course of the disease. Gastroscopic manifestations are raised white spots, mucosal congestion, erosion, ulceration, roughness, brittleness, erosion and even ulcer formation, and in severe cases, hyperplasia and luminal narrowing. Pathological examination of the fungus is distributed within the parenchymal cells, and the lesion tissue is widely covered with clusters of hyphae and spores in the form of multiple abscesses, and in severe cases, heterogeneous proliferation of cells and malignant transformation may occur.  According to the pathogenetic characteristics of fungal esophagitis and based on clinical practice, we believe that its main etiology is the internal growth of dampness in body deficiency, blocking the spleen and stomach in the middle jiao, and the disease is located in the esophagus. If the tongue is red, the basic formula is Gan Cao Di Xin Tang with Atractylodes Macrocephalae, and if the tongue is not red, the basic formula is used.