Modern aspects of managing patients with non-erosive reflux disease

Abstract

A review of current data on the management of patients with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) was made. Diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is based on symptom analysis, endoscopic evaluation of the esophageal mucosa, objective evidence of gastric contents reflux into the esophagus during pH-impedancemetry, and response to therapeutic intervention. Treatment for GERD should include weight loss if overweight, lifestyle modification, and dietary modification. Current consensus recommends starting NERD treatment with once-daily proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), but only 50% of patients with this pathology respond to such therapy. Incomplete response to PPIs is a reason to increase the dose of PPI and add Gaviscon to treatment to neutralize the post-prandial “acid pocket”. Gaviscon is especially effective in patients with postprandial or nocturnal symptoms and in those with hiatal hernia. The mechanism of action of Gaviscon is based on the formation of an alginate “raft” on the surface of the gastric contents, which neutralizes the acid and blocks its pathological effect to esophageal mucosa. A modern meta-analysis on the NERD treatment, which included 23 studies and 10,735 patients, showed the efficacy of Gaviscon monotherapy comparable to PPIs in treatment for 4 weeks. The combination of a PPI with Gaviscon offers the opportunity to optimize response to treatment in NERD patients with an incomplete response to PPIs monotherapy. The Russian Gastroenterological Association thinks that alginates can be used both as monotherapy for mild clinical variants of NERD and in complex treatment regimens for various GERD variants.