[Towards reasoned early surgical treatment for hiatal hernia in the infant (author's transl)].

The authors report 2 cases of HH and MCT in newborn of 1 1/2 and 5 months old who quickly develop a peptic stenosis despite a good medical treatment. Reviewing 51 cases of early surgical treatment (29 cases operated on before 2 months of age), they estimate legitimal an early surgical treatment for HH and MCT in newborn. They insist on the necessity to begin with a rigourous medical treatment, which cannot exceed one month if an oesophagitis persist (documented by a good and acurate endoscopic examination). This examination is the guide line for the surgical indication and is more acurate than the clinical and radiological informations. They point out the absence of mortality and the improvement of the results if the patients are operated on before 2 months old. In the literature ones can observe that the incidence of recurrence and peptic stenosis is decreased when the patients are operated on early.