Best Thing For Heartburn Relief In St. Petersburg, FL

Before any treatment, Dr. Grandhige proves whether reflux is happening, why, and whether it is even the source of your symptoms. He uses objective testing, not a trial of pills. His rule is simple: the decision is the hard part, and the operation is the last step.

Four tests answer four different questions. An upper endoscopy shows damage like inflammation or Barrett’s esophagus, but it does not diagnose reflux, and a normal scope does not rule it out. Esophageal pH monitoring, worn over 48 to 72 hours during your normal day, measures how often reflux happens, how long it lasts, and whether it lines up with your symptoms. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, pH and impedance monitoring is the most accurate way to detect acid reflux. Esophageal manometry measures the strength and coordination of your esophagus, which decides what procedure is safe, because a weak esophagus rules out some operations. A barium swallow adds a moving picture of how you actually swallow when it is needed. Skip these, and surgery gets done on the wrong diagnosis, which is how reflux surgery earned a bad name in the first place.

There is no single best reflux operation. The right one depends on your anatomy, esophageal strength, hernia size, and goals, and Dr. Grandhige performs all four so the choice fits you rather than his habit. He has done over 600 fundoplications, over 600 LINX procedures, and over 200 TIF procedures, and he is the only board-certified surgeon in the Tampa Bay area performing all of them regularly. In 2026 he is adding RefluxStop, which will make him the only surgeon in the area offering all four anti-reflux procedures.

Two practical notes. Fundoplication and LINX each take about 1.5 to 2 hours, and TIF runs about 45 to 60 minutes. Most patients go home the same day and move through a staged diet over a few weeks to a couple of months. Dr. Grandhige is direct about the tradeoff with TIF: it is the strongest incisionless option, but it does not repair a hiatal hernia and it is not permanent, with a failure rate he quotes at about 2 percent a year.

Reflux surgery outcomes depend more on diagnosis and procedure selection than on the operation itself, and Dr. Grandhige has focused only on foregut surgery since 2009. He is a board-certified general surgeon, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of SAGES, and a founding member of the American Foregut Society. He trained at Johns Hopkins, earned his MD at the University of Michigan, and completed his residency and fellowships in foregut and minimally invasive surgery at Yale-New Haven. You can confirm his board certification directly through the American Board of Surgery. A dedicated physician assistant is in every one of his operations, his office staff have been with him for years, and he is reachable after hours.

St. Petersburg patients see him at the South Tampa office, a short drive over the Gandy or Howard Frankland Bridge. Most people are seen within two weeks and always within four. If your testing is already done, one visit is often enough. If not, expect two visits about four weeks apart, and roughly four to eight weeks from decision to surgery. The team coordinates testing so out-of-town patients make as few trips as possible, and sending your records to the office before your visit means the consult is about answers, not paperwork. Come in if you have a hiatal hernia over 3 centimeters, symptoms breaking through daily medication, a need for more than once-daily pills, complications like severe esophagitis or Barrett’s esophagus, or if you would rather not stay on acid-reducing medication for life.

Tampa Bay Reflux Institute is at 1315 South Howard Avenue, Suite 101, Tampa, FL 33606. Call 813.922.2920, Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm.