A recent prospective study (J Abdallah et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2019; 17: 1073-80) examined adults patients with documented reflux at baseline. Patients who reported heartburn and/or regurgitation at least twice a week for 3 months (n=16) despite proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy were considered PPI failures. Those (n=13) who responded to standard dose PPI for at least 4 weeks were in the “PPI success” group.
Standard PPI dosing in this study:
- Omeprazole 20 mg per day
- Esomeprazole 40 mg per day
- Pantoprazole 40 mg per day
Methods: Both groups (PPI Failure group, PPI Success group) underwent EGD and pH-MII studies. Abnormal acid exposure was considered if pH <4 was present for >4.2%.
Key findings:
- 12 patients (75%) in the PPI failure group had either functional heartburn or reflux hypersensitivity
- 4 patients in both groups had abnormal pH test result.
- There was no statistically significant differences in the number of reflux events, acid exposure or nonacid reflux parameters between patients who failed or those who were successfully treated with PPIs.
- In the PPI failure group: 25% had persistent GERD, 12.% had overlap with reflux hypersensitivity, and 62.5% had overlap with functional heartburn
My take: The difference between PPI failure and PPI success largely is due to the overlapping presence of functional esophageal disorders.
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- Failure of PPI test | gutsandgrowth
- Guidelines on Functional Heartburn
- Better to do a coin toss than an ENT exam to determine reflux
- How Likely is Reflux in Infants with “Reflux-like … – gutsandgrowth
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