The EAES clinical practice guidelines on laparoscopic antireflux surgery for gastroesophagel reflux disease (1997)

In the last 2 years, growing experience and enormous technical developments have made it possible for almost any abdominal operation to be performed via endoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, appendectomy, and hernia repair have been going through the characteristic life cycle of technological innovations, and cholecystectomy, at least, seems to have proven a definitive success. To evaluate this life cycle, consensus conferences on these topics have been organized and performed by the EAES [76b]. Currently, the interest of endoscopic abdominal surgery is focusing on antireflux operation. This is documented by an increasing number of operations and publications in the literature. The international societies such as the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) have the responsibility to provide a forum for discussion of new developments and to provide guidelines on best practice based on the current state of knowledge. Therefore, a consensus development conference on laparoscopic antireflux surgery for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) was held, which included discussion of some pathophysiological aspects of the disease. Based on the experience of previous consensus conferences (Madrid 1994), the process of the consensus development conference was slightly modified. The development process was concentrated on one subject reflux disease and during the 4th International Meeting of the EAES, a long public discussion, including all aspects of the consensus document, was incorporated into the process. The methods and the results of this consensus conference are presented in this comprehensive article.