Quality of life and surgical outcomes following laparoscopic surgery for refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease in a regional hospital.

BACKGROUND Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a prevalent condition leading to poor quality of life (QOL) in patients with refractory symptoms. Laparoscopic antireflux (LAR) surgery has been shown to improve QOL, and I sought to examine the surgical and QOL outcomes associated with LAR surgery over a 3-year period at a regional hospital. METHODS Patients were given GERD-health related quality of life (GERD-HRQL) and SF-36 questionnaires preoperatively, at 6 months and at 12 or more months after surgery. I collected data on demographic and clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes. RESULTS Of the 342 patients referred for GERD or dysphagia, 26 received LAR surgery during the study period. All 26 patients had symptoms refractory to medications; 19 had atypical symptoms and 8 had some form of chronic pain syndrome (CPS). The mean duration of surgery was 125 minutes. There were no conversions, complications, 30-day readmissions or deaths. Three patients stayed 2 days in hospital and 23 stayed overnight. One patient required esophageal dilation for persistent dysphagia. Two patients resumed medication for recurrent symptoms and 24 remained medication free. There were significant improvements in GERD-HRQL scores in all patients. Patients with CPS had no improvements in SF-36 scores, whereas patients without CPS showed significant improvement. CONCLUSION Excellent surgical outcomes in LAR surgery can be obtained with careful patient selection at a nonacademic regional hospital. Although GERD-HRQL improved in all patients, patients with CPS showed no improvement in general health QOL scores after LAR surgery. Careful patient counselling should be employed when offering LAR surgery to patients with CPS.