Long-term outcome of esophageal myotomy for achalasia

Table 1 Objective and subjective parameters from patients with achalasia before and after Heller’s myotomy

	Before surgery		After surgery		t	P
	n	mean ± SD	n	mean ± SD
Clinical score	176	4.11 ± 0.93	58	1.84 ± 1.26	14.66	0.000
RP of the LES (cm H2O)	50	31.14 ± 10.54	30	18.05 ± 8.90	5.76	0.000
RP of the EB (cm H2O)	50	13.66 ± 5.49	30	4.96 ± 4.86	7.15	0.000
DeMeester score	12	33.87 ± 54.2	22	49.75 ± 73.4	0.663	0.512

RP = resting pressure, EB = esophageal body.

Table 2 Esophageal clearance rates for pre- and post-myotomy patients and normal controls (mean ± SD%)

	n	Times after isotope labeled semi-liquid meal intaken
		5th second	1st minute	2nd minute	5th minute
Normal controls	12	91.7 ± 1.4	92.5 ± 1.9	92.8 ± 2.1	93.0 ± 2.5
Pre-myotomy pts	12	7.5 ± 2.1a	40.4 ± 28.2a	45.5 ± 30.1a	50.5 ± 35.5a
Post-myotomy pts	42	33.7 ± 8.8b	80.2 ± 19.1c	85.4 ± 12.2c	94.4 ± 5.1

^aP < 0.01 vs normal controls and post-myotomy patients,

^bP < 0.01 vs normal controls,

^cP < 0.05 vs normal controls.

Table 3 Subjective and objective parameters from patients who underwent Heller’s myotomy alone and in combination with antireflux procedure

	Heller alone		Heller+antireflux		t	P
	n	mean ± SD	n	mean ± SD
Clinical score	47	1.79 ± 1.19	11	2.27 ± 1.62	1.11	0.27
LES RP(cm H2O)	25	18.4 ± 9.80	5	16.6 ± 3.23	0.44	0.66
DeMeester score	11	44.4 ± 38.5	11	55.1 ± 29.3	0.34	0.74