Assessment of the Surgical Treatment of Reflux Esophagitis Complicated by Esophageal Stricture

It was some 40 years ago that acid reflux esophagitis associated with hiatus hernia was first reported by Allison et al. [1] in 1951. Since then, reflux esophagitis has been common in the American and European countries, with cases in Japan occurring infrequently. Recently, however, increasing numbers of cases have been diagnosed as reflux esophagitis in Japan due to demographic reasons associated with the aging of society and the westernization of life styles in particular with respect to diet and advances in diagnostic techniques such as esophageal manometry [2], pH monitoring [3], and esophageal scintigraphy [4]. This change of circumstances has caused treatment of the disease to be notably improved: Good results have been reported with histamine H2 receptor antagonists and proton pump inhibitors [5, 6]. However, some cases of reflux esophagitis are resistant to these treatments and develop esophageal stricture during the course of the disease.