Laparoscopic fundoplication - our experience

Gastroesophageal reflux is a very frequent condition occurring occasionally in 40% of the adult inhabitants and in 10% of them appearing every day. The first step of the treatment is medicamentous one, and if it fails, then surgical treatment is indicated. From March 2001 till March 2004, laparoscopic fudoplication was done in 21 patients. Conversion was performed in 2 patients, and in 19 ones surgical treatment was accomplished laparoscopically. All were operated according to Nissen-Rossetti method. Synchronous surgical treatment, fundoplication and cholecystectomy were done in 4 patients. Average duration of the operation was 115 min. Average hospitalization was 5.3 days. There was no mortality at all. Total hospital morbidity was 21% (4/19). Considering complications, post surgical haemorrhage and pulmonary embolism occurred in the same patient, and there was one case of mediastinum emphysema and pneumothorax. Transitory dysphagia occurred in 63% surgically treated ones, and after 6 weeks postoperatively, there was no case at all. Laparoscopic fundoplication was proved as a safe surgical treatment with no greater number of complications than the open one, but with undoubted benefit that laparoscopic method is offering