Background: Primary repair failure rates for hiatal hernias (HH) can reach up to 40%, this is especially high in the morbidly obese patient. There is no clear data on how to manage this patient subset. This paper evaluates the efficacy of Roux-N-Y Gastrojejunostomy (RNY GJ) for treatment of symptomatic HH.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients who received a Roux-en-Y Gastrojejunostomy (RNY GJ) for HH at our institution between January 2016 and January 2021 was performed. Patient demographics, symptoms, and post-operative outcomes were recorded and univariate analysis was performed between preoperative and postoperative symptoms.
Results: Thirty-seven patients with a mean age of 56.9 years (SD 11.8) underwent RNY GJ. Patients were mostly female (81.1%) with a mean BMI of 36.8 (SD 8.4). An 78.4% reduction in symptoms of either heartburn, dysphagia, or regurgitation was noted at follow up (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: RNY GJ represents a safe procedure for morbidly obese patients with hiatal hernias with no mortalities amongst our patient cohort along with a significant reduction in pre-operative symptoms and no symptomatic recurrences. RNY GJ should be considered as the operation of choice for repair for this patient population.
Keywords: GERD; Hiatal hernia; Morbid obesity; Roux-N-Y Gastrojejunostomy.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.