Long-term results of surgical treatment for gastroesophageal reflux in asthmatic patients.

We report the long-term results of surgical repair of gastroesophageal reflux in 44 asthmatic patients who underwent surgery more than five years earlier (mean = 7.9 +/- 1.5 years). The severe asthma was associated with clinically evident reflux, and repair was attempted by surgical technique Nissen transabdominal gastropexy, with the following results: total cure, 11 cases (25 percent); marked improvement, 7 (16 percent); moderate improvement, 11 (25 percent); no improvement, 15 (34 percent). Cure was attained in intrinsic asthma with a predominance of nocturnal crises, associated with nocturnal tracheitis and with significant reflux, objective signs of which had appeared before the beginning of the asthma. Other results concerned asthmas complicated secondarily by GER in which it was impossible to determine whether the reflux was only a complication, without effect on the respiratory illness, or exacerbating the asthma. The question of surgery in these patients should be considered with care, being reserved for cases of severe asthma, poorly controlled by antiasthmatic drugs, and complicated by a severe reflux that encompasses ulcerative esophagitis.