Minimally invasive surgical techniques for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease

Open antireflux surgery produces good long-term control of disease, but new interest in the surgical management of gastroesophageal reflux disease has been stimulated by the introduction of minimally invasive techniques to pe rform standard antireflux procedures. In the past some scepticism existed a mong gastroenterologists who quoted the poor surgical results they had seen . These bad results, however, were largely due to inappropriate surgery in poorly worked-up patients or antireflux surgery performed by inexperienced surgeons. Since the introduction of minimally invasive surgery for gastroes ophageal reflux disease, excellent results have been reported with over 5 y ears of followup. The most common and successfully used laparoscopically an tireflux procedures are reviewed and results analyzed.