• Luiz Roberto Lopes, Nathália da Silva Braga, Gustavo Carvalho de Oliveira, João de Souza Coelho Neto, Marcelo Amade Camargo, and Nelson Adami Andreollo.
• Department of Surgery, University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. lopeslr@fcm.unicamp.br
• Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2011 Jan 1; 66 (1): 414641-6.

IntroductionDysphagia is the important symptom in achalasia, and surgery is the most common treatment. The Heller-Pinotti technique is the method preferred by Brazilian surgeons. For many years, this technique was performed by laparotomy, and now the laparoscopic method has been introduced. The objective was to evaluate the immediate and long-term results of patients submitted to surgery by either laparotomy or laparoscopy.Materials And MethodsA total of 67 patients submitted to surgery between 1994 and 2001 with at least 5 years of follow-up were evaluated retrospectively and divided into two groups: laparotomy (41 patients) and laparoscopy (26 patients). Chagas was the etiology in 76.12% of cases. Dysphagia was evaluated according to the classification defined by Saeed et al.ResultsThere were no cases of conversion to open surgery. The mean duration of hospitalization was 3.32 days for laparotomy and 2.54 days for laparoscopy (p < 0.05). An improvement in dysphagia occurred with both groups reporting good or excellent results (laparotomy: 73.17% and laparoscopy: 73.08%). Mean duration of follow-up was 8 years.ConclusionsThere was no difference between the two groups with respect to relief from dysphagia, thereby confirming the safety and effectiveness of the Heller-Pinotti technique, which can be performed by laparotomy or laparoscopy, depending on the surgeon's experience.

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