A 67-year-old male patient, active smoker, with no personal history of interest, who came for endoscopic examination due to progressive dysphagia of solids and liquids of one year's evolution, with occasional odynophagia, without weight loss, hyporexia or fever.
Gastroscopy revealed an irregular, pearly mucosa in the supracardial region, with circular eroded areas and other ulcerated areas covered with fibrin, producing partial stenosis of the oesophageal lumen, which made it difficult for the endoscope to pass through, and was highly suggestive of oesophageal carcinoma. The rest of the examination was normal.

Six biopsies were taken from the lesion described. Histologically, the samples correspond to thick strips of flat polystratified oesophageal epithelium, partially furrowed by connective-vascular axes, which conserve a normal maturational gradient and stratification, including small foci of oedema and leukocyte exocytosis, one of them also shows phenomena of superficial parakeratinisation, associated with eosinophilic masses with a fibrino-necrotic appearance, and bi- and multinucleated cells, compatible with a viral infection (Herpex simplex virus).