I have just had an appointment at stanford for the same issue--nothing works--ppi's no help. I was told these procedures DO NOT work. There is hope for the new ELF/TIF procedure that was just approved by the FDA in the US....look it up. It may be of help, but it needs some testing ove the next year or so. I am about to try a drug called baclofen. It tries to change muscle funtion in the LES instead of reducing acid. It is the newest approach. we shall see.

[QUOTE=lstek;3278121]I have just had an appointment at stanford for the same issue--nothing works--ppi's no help. I was told these procedures DO NOT work. There is hope for the new ELF/TIF procedure that was just approved by the FDA in the US....look it up. It may be of help, but it needs some testing ove the next year or so. I am about to try a drug called baclofen. It tries to change muscle funtion in the LES instead of reducing acid. It is the newest approach. we shall see.

What is the ELF/TIF procedure? I tried to do a search on Google but nothing came up. I've never heard of baclofen but it sounds promising. Let us know how you do with it!

no, they did not give specifics about why they do not work. All that was said was that they were not getting the results they had hoped for. My regular GI in SF used to do the plicator, but he and his practice stopped this summer due to poor results. bummer. At Stanford, the doctor(Gerson) seemed to lean more towards the newer therapies of GABA inhibitors for approaching the LES muscle weakness, or spasms rather than surgery. She even made mention of the potential use of calcium channnel blockers down the road if a motility test showed spasms. Asxz I said before, the esophyx-ELF does have hope, but I was told to give it at least a year before trying it........now, can I wait a year??? I have now been on baclofen for 3 days...no results. I was told to give it a month......waiting.