Anterior Orientation vs Posterior Orientation in Per Oral Endoscopic Myotomy POEM for the Treatment of Achalasia

The purpose of this study is to compare the safety and efficacy of the anterior versus posterior myotomy technique in Per Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) for the treatment of Achalasia. The primary efficacy outcome is periprocedural pain requiring the use of narcotics. The secondary outcomes focus on safety which includes technical procedure duration time; tunneling time, myotomy time, and closure time; incidence of mucosotomy (transmural and non-transmural injury), capnoperitoneum, and the postoperative sequelae of gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD). Periprocedural pain data collection will include post POEM procedure pain scores, administrations of analgesia until discharge. The final analysis will focus on determining whether there is a statistically significant difference in the amount and severity of pain in the Anterior versus Posterior myotomy subject populations. Additional analysis will be the collection of analgesic type (narcotic versus non-narcotic), dosage, frequency, and duration of treatment from post POEM procedure in the endoscopy recovery suite until the subjects are discharged.