Intragastric manometric measurements of patients with hiatal hernia: A prospective controlled study

Abstract

Objective: Hiatal hernia is a disorder in which abdominal contents, especially gastroesophageal junction and proximal stomach are displaced through an incompetent esophageal hiatus into mediastinum. Aim of this study is to investigate the relationship betweeen intragastric pressure and incompetent cardioesophageal sphincter and hiatal hernia.

Methods: The sample is composed of 81 individuals; 51.9% of which are male (n: 42) and 48.1% of which are female (n: 39) with median age of 42.00. Two groups have been constituted: A control group of healthy volunteers (G1) and a patient group with hiatal hernia (G2). After gastroscopy, all patients and controls underwent gastric and esophageal manometry using a water perfused catheter

Results: Mean intragastric pressure was 1,308 mmHg for G1 and, -0,105 mmHg for G2. Mean lower esophageal pressure were 13,143 mmHg and 11,65 mmHg, and upper esophageal pressure were 35,273 mmHg and 27,211 mmHg for G1 and G2, respectively. 24 hour pH metry test revealed 26.8% physiologic gastroesophageal reflux and 73.2% pathologic gastroesophageal reflux in G2. There were statistically significant difference between two groups for mean intragastric pressure (p <0.001) and mean lower esophageal pressure (p <0.05).

Conclusion: This study shows that hiatal hernia results in significantly lower intragastric pressures.