Rising Incidence of Reflux Oesophagitis in Patients Undergoing Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Abstract

Background: In the literature a lot of epidemiological data is present but little is known on the yearly incidence of oesophagitis and Barrett’s oesophagus. For this reason a cross-sectional study was done to explore the yearly incidence of these conditions in patients sent for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Methods: All patients diagnosed with reflux oesophagitis, Barrett’s oesophagus or hiatus hernia in a 10-year period were included. Results: In the period of 10 years 11,691 consecutive patients underwent endoscopic examination. Oesophagitis was diagnosed in 1,633 patients, Barrett’s oesophagus in 275, and hiatus hernia without oesophagitis in 1,407 patients. The number of patients with oesophagitis almost doubled, while the number of patients with hiatus hernia or Barrett’s oesophagus remained constant each year in this time period. The number of men diagnosed with oesophagitis or Barrett’s oesophagus was significantly higher than the number of women. Hiatus hernia occurred significantly more often in women, and was present in 79–88% of patients with active reflux oesophagitis. Conclusion: This study clearly shows that the incidence of reflux oesophagitis shows a marked increase. The incidence doubled in a period of ten consecutive years. This data should be kept in mind in planning future health-care resources. It can be expected that the use of acid suppressive therapy will be rising in the years to come.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease and vocal disturbances

“…However, it is not the exam of choice for diagnosing laryngopharyngeal reflux. Our results are similar to findings of some other authors (14,16) . Esophageal motor activity revealed that LES average pressure did not differ between patients with dysphonia and controls.…”

“…Hiatal hernia, an important GERD pathogenic factor, was diagnosed in 65% of G1 patients and in 60% of G2 (P = 0.77), as also observed by Loffeld and Putten (16) . According to Koufman et al (13) , endoscopy is an excellent method to evaluate the esophagus.…”

Estudo de alterações na cavidade oral em pacientes com doença do refluxo gastroesofágico

“…A idade média dos pacientes com DRGE (36,8 ± 11,2) foi semelhante à referida por SOMANI et al (36) , porém inferior à publicada por outros autores (3,25,27,32) . O diagnóstico de HHD foi realizado em 76% do pacientes do grupo 1, resultado semelhante ao observado por LOFFELD e PUTTEN (26) . A HHD tem sido considerada como importante fator patogênico da DRGE.…”

“…Em estudo epidemiológico realizado na Holanda, LOFFELD e PUTTEN (26) observaram que nos últimos 10 anos houve aumento do número de pacientes com esofagite de refluxo gastroesofágico em graus 1 e 2. Coincidentemente, foi observado nesta série que dos 20 pacientes com esofagite erosiva, 15 apresentaramna em graus leve e moderado (1 e 2).…”

“…Considerada afecção digestiva de elevada prevalência e incidência em ascensão, a doença do refluxo gastroesofágico (DRGE) compromete a qualidade de vida dos pacientes, em virtude da gravidade das complicações, intensidade e diversidade dos sintomas (9,16,20,25,26,28,31) . O diagnóstico clínico da DRGE é bastante sensível, pois a maioria dos pacientes apresenta os sintomas clássicos da doença, representados por pirose e regurgitação.…”