Laparoscopic Acid Reflux Surgery

Laparoscopic surgery is essentially a fundoplication procedure done with the help of a video camera and monitor in order to keep the incisions required for the surgery as small as possible.

However, if you are overweight, have too much scaring from previous surgeries or there is too much bleeding during the operation the surgeon will need to switch to an open type of surgery requiring larger incisions.

With a laparoscopic procedure, the surgeon will make three to five small incisions in your belly. They will then place in one of the openings a laparoscope, which is a hollow tube with a video camera at the end of the tube.

The other openings will be utilized by the surgeon for there instruments required to perform the procedure. The camera is connected to a monitor that is placed in the operating room which allows the doctor the ability to see inside of your belly while they are conducting the operation.

There are many reasons for a patient to have laparoscopic surgery. The symptoms experienced by the patients that this surgery is preformed on are the following; acid reflux disease, heartburn, GERD, belching, burning in the stomach, gas bubbles or burping or having difficulty swallowing food or liquids.

In some cases the patients may have been on medications for many years, but they are either tired of taking the drugs or the drugs are not helping as originally hoped. In other cases the patient has a para-esophageal hernia where there stomach is stuck in the chest or is twisting around itself.

Other reasons this surgery is performed are ulcers of the esophagus, bleeding in the esophagus or strictures of the esophagus, which is a narrowing of the esophagus due to scar tissue build up.

There are a multiple of advantages for the patient with laparoscopic surgery as opposed to an open procedure. First, there is less bleeding and this decreases the chances of the patient requiring a blood transfusion.

Second, the smaller incisions reduce the recovery period, the pain from smaller openings is less and finally the scaring is also reduced. Because of a reduction in the pain less medications are required to relieve the pain.

The time to conduct the operation is usually longer than an open procedure, but the average stay in the hospital recovering is reduced.