Introduction:

gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) affects one out of eight people in Colombia. Its characteristic symptoms are heartburn and reflux. The cornerstone of treatment is proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), with a clinical response in 58-80% of patients. Of those who do not respond, 75-90% have a superimposed functional disorder and could be treated by adding visceral neuromodulators.

Objective:

to evaluate the impact of optimizing the treatment of patients with GERD when there is no response to esomeprazole (ESO).

Materials and methods:

a prospective study in patients with no clinical response (more than two reflux episodes per week) who were treated with 40 mg of ESO half an hour before breakfast along with the recommendation to lose weight if BMI >25, stop smoking and manage stress; and, finally, increasing the ESO dose to 40 mg on an empty stomach and before dinner. When all of this was done and symptoms persisted, 12.5 mg of amitriptyline were added at night. The response was evaluated every 12 weeks.

Results:

a total of 529 patients were eligible and 149 met the inclusion criteria. With treatment optimization, 111 patients had a clinical response without using amitriptyline (74.5%; 95%CI 67.2 81.4). Amitriptyline was added in 22 patients (14.8%), 15 of whom responded (68.2%; 95%CI 47.04-89.32%). Eight patients experienced drowsiness (53.3%). A relationship was found between PPI treatment compliance and clinical response (p<0.0001).

Conclusions:

in patients with GERD, PPI treatment optimization improves 74.5% (95%CI 67.2 81.4) of the patients, and adding amitriptyline for those who do not improve achieves improvement in 68.2% of those who did not improve with two doses of ESO. Sequential management achieved a cumulative improvement in symptom control in 85% (95%CI 78.6-90.4) of the patients. (Acta Med Colomb 2021; 46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36104/amc.2021.2041).

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