Esophageal sphincter pressure during laparoscopic antireflux surgery with a mechanical calibration -: Early results

Background/Aims: Persistent postoperative dysphagia diminishes the good effect of laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery. An excessive increase of the intraoperative lower esophageal sphincter pressure (LESp) is supposed to be related to the persistent postoperative dysphagia and its knowledge could lead to the modification of the surgical technique followed by improved clinical outcomes. This study aims to describe the relation between the intraoperative LESp increase and the incidence of postoperative dysphagia and to find whether a combination of intraoperative manometry and mechanical calibration of the wrap is able to decrease the incidence of the persistent postoperative dysphagia. Methodology: The randomized, prospective, two-branch study included 39 patients suffering from symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease. All patients underwent pre- and postoperative manometry, 24-hour pH-metry and laparoscopic antireflux surgery. The intraoperative LESp was measured in the study arm only. Results: A higher incidence of persistent postoperative dysphagia was revealed in patients with the intraoperative LESp increase more than 15 mmHg. This complication was not found in patients with the LESp increase under 8 mmHg with no impact on the efficacy of the surgery. The combination of the intraoperative manometry and the mechanical calibration of the wrap seems to bring the benefit only to a small number of the patients. Conclusions: According to our results, the intraoperative LESp measurement proved to be a useful supplementary method which was easy to perform, and which enables a modification of the surgical technique to decrease the incidence of the persistent postoperative dysphagia.