Thailand guideline 2020 for medical management of gastroesophageal reflux disease

Abstract

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most prevalent and bothersome functional gastrointestinal disorders worldwide, including in Thailand. After a decade of the first Thailand GERD guideline, physician and gastroenterologist encountered substantially increase of patients with GERD. Many of them are complicated case and refractory to standard treatment. Concurrently, the evolution of clinical characteristics as well as the progression of investigations and treatment have developed and changed tremendously. As a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which are developing countries, we considered that the counterbalance between advancement and sufficient economy is essential in taking care of patients with GERD. We gather physicians from university hospitals, as well as internist and general practitioners who served in rural area, to make a consensus in this updated version of GERD guideline focusing in medical management of GERD. This clinical practice guideline was constructed adhering with standard procedure. We categorized the guideline in to four parts including definition, investigation, treatment, and long-term follow up. We anticipate that this guideline would improve physicians' proficiency and help direct readers to choose investigations and treatments in patients with GERD wisely. Moreover, we wish that this guideline would be applicable in countries with limited resources as well.

Trends in gastroesophageal reflux disease research: A bibliometric and visualized study

“…GERD occurs due to abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus, provoking symptoms or complications ( 4 ). Manifestations of GERD include esophageal syndrome consisting of heartburn, regurgitation, and reflux chest pain syndrome, or non-cardiac chest pain, and potentially, extra-esophageal syndrome ( 5 ). Esophageal exposure to gastric acid can be severe enough to cause ulcer or peptic stricture, Barrett’s esophagus (BE), and even esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) ( 6 , 7 ).…”