Long-term outcome and efficiency of symptom-selective approach to assess gastroesophageal reflux prior to gastrostomy in neurologically impaired children.

Purpose: To evaluate the necessity of preoperative screening for gastroesophageal reflux (GER) prior to gastrostomy in neurologically impaired children.

Methods: Medical records of neurologically impaired children, who have undergone laparoscopic gastrostomy between January, 2004 and June, 2018, were retrospectively reviewed. Before the year of 2014, all patients who required gastrostomy had been routinely screened for GER pre-operatively, but after the year of 2014, only the ones with GER-related symptoms were tested.