Follow-up of Patients Operated Upon for Type II-IV Hiatal Hernia

Surgical therapy for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and hiatal hernia (HH) can achieve outcomes that afford the patient lifelong satisfaction. The published results obtained with this surgery may not be considered to be definitive in relation to the length of follow-up or patients' life expectancy. The real recurrence rates and the results of surgery for GERD are difficult to assess due to the lack of serial time points during the follow-up. Further bias may have been introduced into the analysis by a lack of appropriate controls. The results of surgical therapy for type II-IV HH are even more controversial because of the high rate of anatomical relapse and the different methods of follow-up adopted in reported case series. Aim of this study is to clarify the value of surgical therapy for type II-IV HH. The investigators report on patients who were followed up after surgery at various time points over the course of 30 years.