Brazilian Physicians’ Practices on the Management of Symptoms Suggesting Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease: A Multidisciplinary Survey

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Clinical guidelines are available to steer decisions regarding diagnosis, management and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders. Despite this, variations in physician’s practices regarding gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms are well described in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To describe practices of physicians from different specialties on the management of patients with typical symptoms of GERD (heartburn and regurgitation) in a Brazilian sample. METHODS: National online survey enrolling a sample of general practitioners, gastroenterologists, cardiologists and otolaryngologists. The survey was conducted from August 6th to September 12th, 2018. Subjects answered a structured questionnaire addressing variables regarding physicians’ profile (age, sex, specialty, practice setting, years in practice, type of medical expense reimbursement), their patients characteristics and prescribing behaviors. RESULTS: The final weighted sample was comprised of 400 physicians, 64% male, with an average of 15 years of experience. Physicians’ estimates of gastroesophageal symptoms prevalence among their pool of patients was 37.6% for the total sample, reaching 70.3% among gastroenterologists. The medical specialty with lower average percentage of patients presenting gastroesophageal symptoms was otolaryngology (24.5%). Physicians reported that they request ancillary tests for 64.5% of patients with GERD typical symptoms. The most common diagnostic test was endoscopy (69.4%), followed by video nasolaryngoscopy (16.6%). The percentage of patient to whom endoscopy is performed was significantly higher among gastroenterologists and general practitioners as compared to otolaryngologists and cardiologists, while video nasolaryngoscopy is markedly more frequent among otolaryngologists. In terms of therapeutic options, the most frequently reported strategy was lifestyle modifications followed by proton pump inhibitors. CONCLUSION: Overall patients’ profile and patterns of GERD diagnosis and management seem different between gastroenterologists, general practitioners, otolaryngologists, and cardiologists. Clinical guidelines should address this variability and include other medical specialties besides gastroenterologists in their scope.

CYTOTOXICITY OF RED ONION EXTRACTS (Allium cepa) AND QUERCETIN FLAVONOID IN TUMOR HEp-2 CELL

“…Os exames diagnósticos mais solicitados para pacientes com sintomas típicos de DRGE são endoscopia (com ou sem biópsia), videonasolaringoscopia, pHmetria convencional ou de impedância e esofagomanometria. (CHINZON et al,2020).…”

“…O refluxo induziria alterações na expressão de fatores-chave de transcrição do desenvolvimento que levariam à transformação de células escamosas em células colunares ou à transformação de células-tronco (que normalmente se diferenciam em células escamosas) em células colunares (CALVET, 2016;RAMÍREZ;FLUXÁ, 2015 ). (CHINZON et al, 2020).…”