The Esophagogastric Junction Integrity

Abstract

To the editor, I read with great interest the article “The American Foregut Society white paper on the endoscopic classification of esophagogastric junction integrity”1 published in the journal. The newly proposed American Foregut Society (AFS) classification to grade the antireflux barrier (ARB) integrity provides more comprehensive evaluation that are relevant to the practicing clinicians in day-to-day practice. The authors appropriately call for future validation of this novel classification and its correlation with the presence and severity of gastroesophageal reflux disease, and additionally to extend the classification to assess the ARB integrity in individuals with prior antireflux interventions,1 whether surgical or endoscopic. However, the future directions fall short of addressing 2 important variables that may affect the assessment of ARB integrity by applying the AFS classification. First, the classification does not take into consideration the anesthesia effect on the ARB. The hiatal aperture tends to be larger under general anesthesia with use of paralytics as compared to conscious sedation without the use of paralytics. Second, the novel AFS classification does not take obesity into consideration either. It is common to see a large fat pad in the diaphragmatic hiatus during laparoscopy, which may prevent accurate appreciation of a hidden hiatal hernia, whether endoscopically or laparoscopically. Therefore, caution needs to be taken when evaluating for hiatal hernia in obese patients, and other modalities, such as upper gastrointestinal contrast study, should be used to assess for presence of hiatal hernias.2 Addressing these 2 important issues is of paramount importance in future studies. Declaration of Conflicting Interests