At St Panteleimon Hospital of the First Medical Union of Lviv, surgeons operated on 52-year-old Oksana Arendach, whose long-standing condition had caused almost half of her stomach to shift from the abdominal cavity into the chest. Despite years of conservative treatment abroad, she was unable to get rid of the symptoms, so she decided to turn to doctors in Lviv.
Mrs Oksana has been living in Spain for about 20 years. She says that over the past decade she had been troubled by constant heartburn, pain when swallowing, nausea and bouts of vomiting. Because of heavy physical work, she gave up having lunch, as it became extremely difficult to work after eating. She regularly underwent gastroscopy and took the prescribed medication, but her condition did not improve.
Doctors abroad diagnosed her with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, when the contents of the stomach together with acids are thrown back into the oesophagus and damage its lining. Over time, this led to a physical shortening of the oesophagus and the stomach being “pulled” upwards, resulting in the formation of a hiatal hernia. Despite her worsening symptoms, conservative treatment was continued in Spain and the question of surgery was repeatedly postponed.
When her condition deteriorated, Oksana Arendach came to Ukraine. During X-ray examination at St Panteleimon Hospital, doctors discovered that the diameter of the hernia had reached 6 cm and a significant part of the stomach had ended up in the chest cavity. The doctors decided that surgery was necessary.
The operation was performed by a team led by Professor Andriy Stasyshyn, surgeon and head of the Department of General Surgery at St Panteleimon Hospital. Through several small punctures, the specialists carried out an extended laparoscopic mediastinal dissection: they separated the stomach from adhesions in the chest cavity, mobilised the shortened oesophagus and restored the correct anatomical position of the organs.
The next stage was repair of the pathologically widened oesophageal opening of the diaphragm. The procedure was completed with Nissen fundoplication, a surgical technique for treating reflux, which had caused the development of complications in the patient.
On the second day after the laparoscopic operation, Oksana Arendach was discharged from hospital. She is feeling well and thanks the specialists at St Panteleimon Hospital for resolving a problem she had lived with for many years.
The First Medical Union of Lviv notes that it provides the full range of modern medical care, from diagnostics and drug therapy to complex surgical interventions, rehabilitation and prosthetics. The union includes St Panteleimon, St Luke, St Nicholas and St Anna hospitals, the UNBROKEN rehabilitation centre and treatment and diagnostic centres.