title: Esophageal shortening during the era of laparoscopic surgery.
abstract: An effective method for determining the presence of a short esophagus preoperatively would be helpful to surgeons. In this study 260 patients underwent primary laparoscopic antireflux surgery; 44 of them were suspected to have esophageal shortening on the basis of: (1) Barrett's esophagus or evidence of peptic stricture formation on endoscopy; (2) an irreducible hiatal hernia > or = 5 cm in length on upright barium esophagram; or (3) a short esophagus on manometric analysis, defined as 2 SD below normal for height. Six patients without preoperative criteria required extensive esophageal mobilization and intraoperative endoscopic/laparoscopic assessment. Preoperative results were then compared with intraoperative esophageal length assessments. Altogether, 13 patients (5% of the whole series) underwent a lengthening procedure: left thoracoscopically assisted laparoscopic Collis gastroplasty (n = 11) or open transthoracic Collis gastroplasty (n = 2) plus antireflux repair (Nissen fundoplication in 9 and Toupet repair in 4). Among the preoperative tests, endoscopy had the highest sensitivity rate (61%); a combination of tests resulted in an increase in the specificity (63-100%) without a corresponding increase in sensitivity (28-42%). Preoperative testing is thus useful for predicting the need for an esophageal lengthening procedure. Endoscopy is the best screening test for the short esophagus. A well planned prospective trial to test the reliability of each test is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Creighton University School of Medicine, 601 N. 30th Street, Suite 3740, Omaha, Nebraska 68131, USA.
authors.forename: Z T
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Awad
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Mittal
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: P I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Wilfley
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Filipi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004947:Esophagus / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D008297:Male; D008365:Manometry; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013908:Thoracotomy