Achalasia of the esophagus in children

Purpose: Achalasia of the esophagus is a rare disorder in children, its symptom can mimic common childhood illnesses. In this study, the tactics of managing children with the corresponding pathology and evaluating the effectiveness of ongoing surgical treatment at the Filatov Children Hospital are considered. Materials. From 1991 to 2016, inthe Filatov Children Hospitalwas treated 39 patients with achalasia. Since 2011, all patients (27 cases) have undergone laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy with Dorfundoplication. The average age was 9.9 (4-15) years. The most frequent symptoms were vomiting (81%) and dysphagia (70%). Weight loss was observed in 48.1% of patients and chronic cough in 25%. Results. All children underwent laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy with Dorfundoplication. Intraoperative complication - damage to the mucosa of the esophagus occurred during cardiomyotomy in 2 cases (7.4%), which were cured during the laparoscopic procedure. There were no open procedures. Six (22.2%) required repeated intervention: pneumatic dilations (n = 2), balloon dilatation (n = 2) and re-surgery (n = 2). Conclusions. In our study, laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy in the case of achalasia of the esophagus is effective in 77.8% of children. We recommend this operation with Dorfundoplication, and believe that it is the operation of choice in the treatment of achalasia in children

More about neutron - mirror neutron oscillation

It was pointed out recently that oscillation of the neutron $n$ into mirror neutron $n'$, a sterile twin of the neutron with exactly the same mass, could be a very fast process with the the baryon number violation, even faster than the neutron decay itself. This process is sensitive to the magnetic fields and it could be observed by comparing the neutron lose rates in the UCN storage chambers for different magnetic backgrounds. We calculate the probability of $n-n'$ oscillation in the case when a mirror magnetic field $\vec{B}'$ is non-zero and show that in this case it can be suppressed or resonantly enhanced by applying the ordinary magnetic field $\vec{B}$, depending on its strength and on its orientation with respect to $\vec{B}'$. The recent experimental data, under this hypothesis, still allow the $n-n'$ oscillation time order 1 s or even smaller. Moreover, they indicate that the neutron losses are sensitive to the orientation of the magnetic field. %at about $3\sigma$ level. If these hints will be confirmed in the future experiments, this would point to the presence of the mirror magnetic field on the Earth of the order of 0.1 G, or some equivalent spin-dependent force of the other origin that makes a difference between the neutron and mirror neutron states.Comment: 10 page

Surgical treatment of the achalasia in children. Single center experience

Purpose: Achalasia of the esophagus is a rare disorder in children; its symptom can mimic common childhood illnesses. In this study, the tactics of managing children with the corresponding pathology and evaluating the effectiveness of ongoing surgical treatment at the Filatov Children Hospital are considered. Materials: From 1991 to 2016, inthe Filatov Children Hospitalwas treated 39 patients with achalasia. Since 2011, all patients (27 cases) have undergone laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy with Dorfundoplication. The average age was 9.9 (4-15) years. The most frequent symptoms were vomiting (81%) and dysphagia (70%). Weight loss was observed in 48.1% of patients and chronic cough in 25%. Results: All children underwent laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy with Dorfundoplication. Intraoperative complication - damage to the mucosa of the esophagus occurred during cardiomyotomy in 2 cases (7.4%), which were cured during the laparoscopic procedure. There were no open procedures. Six (22.2%) required repeated intervention: pneumatic dilations (n = 2), balloon dilatation (n = 2) and re-surgery (n = 2). Conclusion: In our study, laparoscopic Hellercardiomyotomy in the case of achalasia of the esophagus is effective in 77.8% of children. We recommend this operation with Dorfundoplication, and believe that it is the operation of choice in the treatment of achalasia in children