Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

A recent study showed that magnetic sphincter augmentation was safe and resulted in long-term symptom improvement among patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease. It was the top story in gastroenterology last week.

Magnetic sphincter augmentation resulted in long-term safety in efficacy regarding symptom improvement, decreased drug dependency and reduced esophageal acid exposure in gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Acid exposure reflux monitoring predicted the ability to discontinue proton pump inhibitor use without symptom escalation among patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease and inadequate proton pump inhibitor response.

Patients who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy after sleeve gastrectomy experienced a high prevalence of Barrett’s esophagus, according to results published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

The American College of Gastroenterology developed clinical guidelines for esophageal physiologic tests, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Transoral incisionless fundoplication is an endoscopy procedure that relieves reflux symptoms. A recent interview exploring the evolution of Esophyx — a device used to perform the procedure — was the top story in gastroenterology last week.

Researchers introduced transoral incisionless fundoplication to treat reflux disease in 2006.

Detection tools more accurately identified patients at risk for neoplastic Barrett’s esophagus compared with frequency and duration of GERD, according to results published in Gastroenterology.

A number of high-profile, but ultimately weakly associated, risks have hounded proton pump inhibitors for years. The mainstream media caught on to research that linked the drugs to scary conditions such as dementia, myocardial infarction and even malignancies causing some patients to discontinue them entirely. However, new research over the last several years has either disproven those previous claims or found the associations to be extremely weak. How can the gastroenterology community rebuild the image of PPIs?

The portrayal of proton pump inhibitors in the news lately has been rather bleak. Concerns for increased risks for dementia, malignancies and other serious adverse events have populated our television sets and mainstream media over the last several years.