Acute hiatal hernias

In surgical practice, hiatal hernias are often related to gastro esophageal reflux disease treatment in which continuous proton pump inhibitor administration is very successful. In large hiatal hernias, life threatening complications may occur. However, planned surgical repair of hiatal hernias is associated with very good functional outcomes with a low risk of postoperative complications. The incidence of large hiatal hernias grows with increasing age of the patient. In geriatric patients, internal comorbidities are also more frequent, including serious conditions. In these patients, one may hesitate whether to perform surgery with regard to the possible risk of postoperative complications. Conservative treatment of hiatal hernias is associated with a higher risk of stomach volvulus or severe bleeding as the most frequent complications.

We performed a retrospective study of patients operated on for a large hiatal hernia at the Department of Surgery, University Hospital Brno, between 2010 and 2016 (86 months). The patients were divided into 2 groups depending on the type of operation: acute (A) and elective (B). We evaluated demographic data, the nature of preoperative symptoms, type of surgery and postoperative complications.

120 patients were operated on for large hiatal hernia in this period of time. Group A involved 22 operated patients, group B 98 patients. There was a significantly higher number of laparotomies in the acute patient group compared to the elective group B (72.7 % vs. 23.5%, p.