Chronic esophagitis and gastric metaplasia are frequent late complications of esophageal atresia

Abstract

Long-term follow-up examination with esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed on 39 esophageal atresia patients 2 to 11 years (mean, 7.6) after the anastomotic operation. Nine of these patients had undergone fundoplication for symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux. The subjective results at the last follow-up were as follows: excellent in 25, good in 10, and fair in 4 patients. The endoscopic findings were normal in 17 patients. Endoscopy of the remaining 22 patients showed esophagitis in 20, 5 associated with Barrett's change. Hiatal hernia was found in 10 patients. The fundoplication was totally or partially disrupted in 3 patients. Esophageal biopsies were obtained from 37 patients. The histological findings were as follows: esophagitis in 21, gastric metaplasia in 3, and normal esophageal mucosa in 13 patients. The endoscopic and histological findings correlated poorly with subjective results as more than half of the patients with excellent subjective results had esophagitis, one of them with gastric metaplasia. Therefore, long-term endoscopic follow-up of all esophageal atresia patients is warranted.