Total esophagogastric dissociation (TEGD): Lessons from two decades of experience

BACKGROUND

Total esophagogastric dissociation (TEGD) has been performed in our institution since 1994, predating its published description by Bianchi in 1997. Originally it was considered a rescue procedure when conventional antireflux surgery failed. Recently TEGD has been considered a viable primary option for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in severely neurological impaired (NI) patients. We describe our institution's experience of TEGD in this selected cohort of patients.

METHODS

An institutional retrospective review was performed detailing our total experience of open TEGD between 1994 and 2015 in severely neurologically impaired (NI) patients. Demographic, complications, and outcome were analyzed.

RESULTS

Sixty-six NI patients underwent TEGD between 1994 and 2015 (39 female). Primary TEGD was performed in forty-nine patients (74.2%), while the remainder were rescue procedures following the failure of previous antireflux surgery. In 98% of cases no recurrence of clinically significant reflux was reported. The mean hospital length of stay was 10.2 days. There were sixteen reported complications in twelve patients representing 18.2% of the cohort. One death was attributable to the procedure (1.5%). Median follow-up was 31.6 months (range, 1.3-137.9 months).

CONCLUSION

TEGD appears to be a valid surgical option to treat severe GERD in severely neurologically impaired children, both as a primary procedure and as a rescue procedure following failure of anti-reflux surgery. Further studies comparing TEGD versus laparoscopic fundoplication are desirable to understand which of these procedures can be the most effective in this compromised group of patients.

TYPE OF STUDY

Retrospective study Level of evidence: IV.