[24 hour esophageal pH monitoring in patients with cardiac cancer postoperatively].

Twenty-four-hour esophageal pH monitoring was performed in thirty patients with cardiac cancer on the 13rd to 18th postoperative day in order to understand the condition of gastroesophageal reflux (GER), the value of commonly used operative procedures and the effect of patients sleeping position for preventing GER. GER parameters were higher than those of normal subjects (P < 0.001), but there were only 60% patients who had typical GER symptoms. No significant differences were found between anastomoses in abdomen and chest, encasing-in style, and "scarf" style (P > 0.05). Patients sleeping with upper body raised for 30 degrees had much lower GER parameters than those of controls. Manual anastomosis often used now couldn't decrease GER. All patients with cardiac cancer have postoperative GER though they had no typical symptoms of GER, but GER was avoided during sleeping with upper body erected.