Objectives
Anesthesia can alter gastric and small intestinal motility, but its effect on gastroesophageal reflux (GER) is unclear. We set out to evaluate the effect of anesthesia on pH-multichannel intraluminal Impedance (pH Impedance) evaluation of GER.
Methods
Retrospective single center analysis of 95 pH Impedance probe studies performed in patients both with anesthesia exposure and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (n=50) and without (n=45).
Results
Increased acid reflux per hour, non-acid reflux per hour and total reflux per hour was observed in the first 4 hours, both overall and in ≥1 year olds and in both sedation groups. This difference remained for the older children without sedation by multiple regression analysis for non-acid reflux per hour and total reflux per hour. Patients using PPI had more non-acid reflux events per hour and total reflux events per hour regardless of sedation.
Conclusions
Based on the results of this study, there is no need to eliminate the data collected immediately after placement of the probe in children under 1 year old, but in those ≥1 without sedation, there may be a greater number of reflux events in the first 4 hours. The first 4 hours, therefore, should be carefully evaluated in patients older than 1 year of age. Further study is needed to provide normative data for the first 4 hours versus the later time period, both for those undergoing sedation as well as unsedated patients, in order to validate the findings from this study and to better understand the mechanism of GER.