Question for the people who had antireflux surgery

did you all have a weak LES before surgery?

I did, my GI told me that it wasn't even a muscle really, just a valve kinda flopping around.

I had a weak swallow from polio, also an LES, which allowed reflux, but PPIs kept pH high enough to not cause much damage.

I had reflux mainly when I ate a trigger food - ingredients I do not tolerate. I learned to control most of the reflux by avoiding my triggers.

Then an accident pushed my stomach partway into my chest and my LES was left wide open. Without PPIs (off 10 days for BRAVO test) my pH was 1 all the time.

Hi Neptunian,

I was never diagnosed with LPR, but I had atypical symptoms like LPR...hoarseness and lung issues. I wish I could give you a better answer. Because of my minimal reflux (within the normal range of 14.75 or so and below) I was definitely not a traditional candidate for the surgery. However with perseverance and a good PCP and asthma docs behind me, I was able to convince my GI doc to give surgery a try.

Good luck!
Denise

I wrote about this on another thread.

Basically there are two types of problems with the LES:
1) Low pressure
2) TLESRs

I guess the low pressure is something that fundoplication can clearly fix well. On the other hand - the TLESRs (which we have) it can also fix (although they don't know the exact mechanism .. except that the fundus seems to impede the neuro signals in some ways) .. but there is greater likelihood of persistent dysphagia when fundoplication is applied to a normal LES. I think this is the reason, the surgeons are not going to take the risk with us, is what I feel from my readings so far.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11986014

Post Edited (PPI-LESS) : 6/13/2011 10:12:57 AM (GMT-6)