Treatment results of laparoscopic surgery in Japanese patients with upside-down stomach

Introduction

Upside-down stomach, an atypical form of esophageal hiatal hernia, is a rare pathology. Due to its anomalous anatomical characteristics, the level of difficulty of laparoscopic surgery is considered to be high. However, as the number of patients is very small in Japan, surgical results have not been fully investigated. We examined the results of surgical treatment for Japanese patients with upside-down stomach.

Materials and methods

The subjects were 11 patients given a diagnosis of upside-down stomach based on upper gastrointestinal tract radiographic imaging and who had undergone laparoscopic surgery at least 6 months prior to this study. Surgical results, postoperative recurrence, and postoperative oral intake of gastric acid-suppressive medications were examined.

Results

The subjects consisted of one man and ten women (91 %). The mean age was 73.0 ± 9.2 years and the mean disease period was 38.7 months. The operation time was 175.5 ± 49.1 min (range 110–280) and the intraoperative blood loss was 122.7 ± 214.9 mL (range 0–550). None of the patients had required conversion to laparotomy. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 8.9 ± 3.4 days (range 7–18) and two patients had persistent dysphagia after surgery, which improved with endoscopic dilatation. While two patients (18 %) had a postoperative recurrence of hiatal hernia, none required reoperation. Two patients (18 %) needed oral gastric acid-suppressive medications postoperatively.

Conclusions

Laparoscopic surgery could be performed in all patients with upside-down stomach. Because of the significant recurrence rate of postoperative esophageal hiatal hernia, the use of a mesh may be required.