The etiology of esophagus papilloma is much debated: some authors attach greater importance to irritation factors, while others give preference to the viral hypothesis and suggest that this disease could eventually lead to squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. To verify the viral hypothesis, we reviewed the histological slides of the 33 cases of esophageal papilloma diagnosed in our Institute of Pathology between 1973 and 1988. We evaluated the histological diagnosis using Winckler's criteria. HPV typing was done using probes of HPV DNA types 6-11, 16-18, 31-33-35 applied to paraffin sections according to the in-situ hybridization method. Clinical and endoscopic data of 15 cases (from the CHUV) are reviewed. Oncological data was provided by the Vaud Cantonal Tumor Register. No patient in our series fulfilled all the histological criteria set by Winckler to diagnose an HPV condition. Viral DNA 31-33-35 was found in a small minority of the papillomas. The clinical impact of esophageal papilloma on epidermoid carcinogenesis is nil.