[Surgical treatment of gastroesophageal reflux (hiatal hernia) in pediatric age].

Forty nine pediatric patients with gastroesophageal reflux were studied retrospectively; this is a 4 years experience of Hospital del Niño, IMAN. All of them were treated in the same manner, which included barium gastrointestinal series, esophagoscopy, gastric secretion test. Nissen's funduplication was performed in all of them, plus gastrostomy in those cases having esophageal stenosis. Preoperatively, eight out of every ten patients had stenosis. From the entire series, one patient died. All of them were relieved from their gastroesophageal reflux. By the ninth day following operation, one patient suffered a gastric perforation. The authors make special considerations concerning the high number of cases per year, as compared with other series. Nissen's funduplication proved very efficient to prevent gastroesophageal reflux.