By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staffwriter
In less than an hour on Friday, an innovative surgery performed at St. Vincent North in Sherwood ended a lifetime of pain for 72-year-old Patty Howle of Hot Springs.
Since she was 16, Howle suffered from round-the-clock gastro-esophageal reflux disease, commonly known as acid reflux.
Acid reflux disease occurs when a weak muscle repeatedly allows the contents of a patient’s stomach to back up into the esophagus and cause heartburn symptoms.
Symptoms can include a burning feeling in the chest, chest pain, burning in the throat, difficulty swallowing, a feeling of food sticking in the middle of the chest or throat, chronic cough, sore throat, chronic hoarseness, stomach discomfort and regurgitation.
Howle said before her surgery, “I am excited. I’ve had every symptom in the world. People have been saying, ‘I’ll see how you do, and I’ll get it done.’”
Her rescuer from the affliction was Dr. Dan Lister. He inserted a ring of magnetic titanium beads with a diameter of about an inch — when the ring isn’t stretched.
Howle said, “After meeting him, there was hope.”
Lister is the only surgeon in the state trained for what is called the LINX Reflux Management System procedure.
During the surgery, the LINX ring is implanted around the lower end of the esophagus to strengthen the weak muscle.
During the surgery, Lister’s eyes never strayed from the monitors displaying Howle’s esphogus. She was unconscious for the 40-minute procedure.
The LINX ring expands to allow food into the stomach and contracts to prevent acid from coming back up into the esophagus.
Lister said Howle is not alone. He said 40 percent of adults in the United States have acid reflux.
The surgeon became dedicated to curing the disease through surgery in 2010 because “reflux is such a huge problem and affects so many people.”
Lister noted that acid reflux causes pneumonia, asthma and even esophageal cancer.
Of patients who are diagnosed with esophageal cancer, only 15 percent are still alive after five years, he said.
There are two types of esophageal cancer, Lister explained. The first is related to smoking and drinking.
But the second type is related to acid reflux. The number of patients diagnosed with that type has increased 700 percent since 1973, he added.
Most of the people who suffer from acid reflux take over-the-counter or prescription drugs to treat it, Lister continued.
But the pills available don’t cure the disease, the surgeon explained. All they do is reduce acid in order to treat the symptoms.
He called the innovative LINX surgery “ingenious.” The procedure is minimally invasive, patients can eat any kind of food immediately, they experience instantaneous relief and recover rapidly, Lister said. He noted that it is an outpatient surgery.
Lister continued, “It’s less manipulating, less dissection of the tissue. It’s beautifully simple. This surgery is going to revolutionize reflux surgery.”
There are two other surgical options for a patient suffering from acid reflux.
The first has been around since the mid-1970s, Lister said. He explained that it involves taking the upper part of the patient’s stomach and wrapping it around the muscle between the esophagus and the stomach.
But this option works unnaturally well, Lister said.
“It’s better than what God gave you,” he noted. While it cures acid reflux, the surgery’s side effects include not being able to vomit or belch, gas buildup and difficulty swallowing.
Recovery is also four to six weeks and a special diet of soft foods is required until the patient’s body heals.
Another option is the TIF surgery when a device made of thermoplastic polymer is used instead of the LINX ring.
Howle said she looked at getting the TIF, but learned that the TIF device doesn’t flex.
Lister said LINX is more similar to the first surgery in its effectiveness. But the LINX procedure doesn’t come with the side effects that have discouraged those who suffer from chronic acid reflux from having surgery rather than dealing with daily doses of acid-reducing drugs.
