[Our experience on the use of the antireflux prosthesis by the Angelchik method (personal contribution of 26 cases)].

The Angelchik prosthesis was used in 26 cases of gastroesophageal reflux disease resistant to medical therapy. The operations were crowned with success in 24 cases out of 26 (92.3%), with complete disappearance of reflux. The procedure failed in two cases: the prosthesis was removed in one case due to postoperative acute haemorrhagic gastritis with a subsequent positive outcome; in this patient the Angelchik ring had been removed as a precaution. Failure in the second case, a patient with oesophageal stenosis and a short oesophagus, was due to mediastinal migration of the prosthesis. In this latter case, a successful duodenal bypass was created with antrectomy and a long Roux-en-Y anastomosis. The only intraoperative complication in the patient sample was a splenectomy for rupture of the splenic capsule. Postoperative complications not directly related to the prosthesis were perforation of a duodenal ulcer not diagnosed preoperatively and treated with raphia without impairing the functional efficacy of the ring, one case of pulmonary embolism and one case of cardiac infarction, all resolved with medical therapy. In all, the prostheses were removed in 3 cases out of 26 (11.5%). In addition to the two cases already described, the prosthesis was removed in one patient one year after the operation at the patient's specific request for "psychological" reasons. Migration of the prosthesis occurred in four cases of severe oesophageal stenosis with a short oesophagus, in three of which the prosthesis functioned perfectly even in the intrathoracic site. At follow-up examinations there was radiological disappearance of the hiatal hernia in 20 cases out of 25. In one case there was no hernia even before the operation, and in four cases there was a short oesophagus with severe oesophagitis. Owing to the very easy performance of the operation together with its unquestionable antireflux efficacy, in our opinion three reliable indications emerge, namely: (i) in elderly patients at high surgical risk; (ii) in obese, brachytypical patients; and (iii) in the presence of severe oesophagitis, even with a short oesophagus.