What Is Nissen's Fundoplication?

Posted on Thu, 12 May 2011

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 12 May 2011 Answered on

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : My son has agenesis of the corpus callosum, small cerebellum, conjucturs (sp?) where his joints are tight, and he is an IUGR baby. He was born at 37 weeks via c-section due to IUGR (very low amniotic fluid) 3 lbs, 14 in, 6 weeks ago. He dropped down to 2 lbs and currently at 6.2 weeks, he is 3 lbs, 16 1/4 in. He drinks from a bottle, however is silent aspirating (very little amounts) as well as having reflux. They have done 3 swallow studies. The first one was normal, the second showed very little aspiration and the third showed reflux. He is not strong enough to suck the nectar from the bottle. He was getting an IV and crying and aspirated on the formula that came up from reflux and also his saliva (I believe this is from him crying so hard and then taking a breath in). They want to due a g-tube and a nissen fundoplication tomorrow morning. My question is is the nissen necessary for him? Could he outgrow the issues he is having? And would thicker formula (like the nectar) help prevent the reflux? His diagnosis is still unknown.

Answered by Dr. Naveen (4 hours later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for the query.

Nissen’s fundoplication is a procedure to strengthen the lower end of esophagus, i.e. Lower esophageal sphincter. If your child is having recurrent regurgitation of the feeds then surgery would be the best option left. There are very few side effects as a result of this operation but are insignificant compared to the advantages

Constant aspiration can cause pneumonia for the child and this has to be prevented and surgery would be a better option as the child cannot remain on the infant feeding tube for long.

Secondly, the baby feeds are to be prepared according to the formulations mentioned otherwise the child might not be able to digest the feeds given, which can lead to abdominal problems.

Hope I have answered your query; I will be available to answer your follow up queries.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar