Symptoms experienced during 24-h pH monitoring and their relationship to outcome after laparoscopic total fundoplication

Some patients having a 24‐h pH monitoring test prior to laparoscopic fundoplication experience no symptoms at all in spite of having a positive test, and other patients experience only atypical symptoms in spite of having a positive test. This study investigates the postoperative outcome of such patients. All patients underwent esophageal manometry and 24‐h esophageal pH monitoring before laparoscopic total fundoplication. Patients were divided into three groups based on their symptom profile recorded during a positive 24‐h pH monitoring: those with typical symptoms (n = 104), those with atypical symptoms (n = 28) and those who experienced no symptoms at all (n = 23). The outcomes measured were heartburn score (0–10), dysphagia composite score (0–45) and satisfaction score (0–10) at 12 months after surgery. Outcome analysis reveals the heartburn scores were significantly reduced postoperatively for all groups of patients. At 1 year after surgery, there was no difference among the three groups of patients in terms of heartburn score and dysphagia composite scores, nor the experience of bloating, belching, or their willingness to repeat surgery. Despite one group experiencing no symptoms, and another group atypical symptoms during a positive pH study, the postoperative satisfaction scores for these two groups was good, but significantly less (P = 0.03, P = 0.02, respectively) than the group of patients with a typical symptom index. In conclusion, patients who experience only atypical symptoms or no symptoms at all during their preoperative positive 24‐h pH monitoring may still obtain a good result from antireflux surgery. However, these symptom profiles should alert the surgeon that such patients may have an outcome which is not as good as patients who experience only typical symptoms during a pH study.