Affiliations: [a] Department of General Surgery, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China | [b] Department of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, PLA Rocket Force General Hospital, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Fei Li, Department of General Surgery, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, No. 45 Changchun Street, Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China. Tel.: +86 10 83198731; Fax: +86 10 83198868; E-mail: feili_drli2080@163.com.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The false positive rate of the PPI test for the diagnosis of typical symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is extremely high. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to investigate the effect of the pepsin test on GERD and laparoscopy-assisted anti-reflux surgery for GERD. METHODS:A total of 30 GERD patients were enrolled into this study, and the pre-diagnosis of GERD was determined by symptom evaluation, impedance-pH examination, gastroscopy and pepsin test. All patients underwent surgery. RESULTS: Among the 30 GERD patients, 18 patients were male and 12 were female, and their average age was 58.2 + 12.6 years old. The patients were treated with laparoscopic fundoplication and hiatus hernia repair after preoperative assessment. A total of 28 patients were followed up, one patient developed recurrent symptoms, and one patient developed postoperative dysphagia and received non-operative treatment. Furthermore, the symptom scores were significantly lower at postoperative pepsin detection when compared to the scores before the operation (pepsin: preoperative: 148.8 ± 82.6, postoperative: 30.7 ± 24.6; t= 4.848, P= 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic fundoplication and hiatus hernia repair may effectively control the symptoms of GERD. Furthermore, the detection of pepsin is non-invasive and easy to operate.
