Introduction:

Gastroesophageal reflux is a common physiological phenomenon in preterm infants and is frequently diagnosed in neonates for whom it is an important clinical phenomenon.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence and symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) by 24-hour ambulatory esophageal pH monitoring of preterm neonates.

Methodology:

This is a study of the prevalence of GERD among patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Cali, Colombia. Esophageal pH of infants was monitored when GERD was suspected. In addition, sociodemographic and clinical variables were recorded and taken into account. Univariate analysis by means of measures of central tendency and bivariate analysis were preformed using the chi-squared test and Student’s T test with p <0.05 established as significant.

Results:

Twenty preterm newborns whose ages from birth ranged from 27.6 days to 36.5 days and whose gestational ages ranged from 3.8 weeks to 31.6 weeks were included. Twelve were male, and eleven (55.0%) had abnormal pH. Gastric waste and heart disease were associated with abnormal pH.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of GERD found through pH monitoring was relatively high in this group of infants compared findings in the world literature although no clear associations were found between the symptoms analyzed and other factors except for heart disease and gastric waste.

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