Can You Handle The Truth?

You be evaluated for surgery before you go under the knife. Believe it or not, your doctors don’t really want to risk you getting any worse than you already are. You will have to undergo some tests to determine if you can be helped by acid reflux surgery. These will often include tests to look at your pH (acid) levels, a barium x-ray (most likely you will just have to swallow the barium sulfate instead of having to take it as an enema, which is painful), and an endoscopy. These are common tests, but usually have to be performed in a hospital. You will often have to follow a strict diet for a day or so before the test. Be sure to follow it. You really don’t want to have to take these tests a second time.

The Surgery

Perhaps all of your tests come back indicating that you can, indeed, be helped by acid reflux surgery. The name of your surgery is called fundoplication, although you probably won’t be having any fun during the surgery, as you’ll be completely knocked out. What the surgeon will do is take the top part of your stomach (called the fundus), wrap it around the bottom of your esophagus and also make sure your stomach and firmly set below your diaphragm.

How does this help? This acid reflux surgery hopes to make your stomach smaller to reduce the acid made. It’s the acid that is making your condition. This acid reflux surgery hopes also to assist the stomach in keeping what goes into it to stay into it, instead of go back up the esophagus.

Effectiveness

Many patients are significantly helped by acid reflux surgery and think that it was worth it. The Mayo Clinic reports that about ninety percent of those having the surgery can go home the next day. Follow up studies of those who had acid reflux sugery, ninety-six percent say they are still cured one year later.