Less invasive surgery works in reflux disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A new study shows how minimally invasive surgery can be used to relieve the symptoms of severe reflux disease.
There has been increasing interest in using laparoscopic - or minimally invasive - surgery to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a painful condition in which stomach acid comes back up into the esophagus. Few studies, however, have reported long term follow up.

A team at the University Hospital, Angers, France, now reports on patients who had had minimally-invasive anti-reflux surgery and were monitored for five years. Complication rates during and after surgery were around two per cent. Patient satisfaction was very high at 93 per cent. And in most cases, the reflux problem cleared completely. Therefore we can be confident that the minimally invasive approach is a safe and effective alternative to more conventional surgery for GERD.

Source
Archives of Surgery October 2005 Volume 140 pages 946-951

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