What does G.E.R.D. stands for?
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) occurs as a consequence of pathological reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus. Today is one of the digestive disease entities most prevalent in Western populations. Based on data from the international study of DIGEST, an estimated 7.7% of Western populations report symptoms of GERD, one of the most frequent reasons for consultation with the gastroenterologist and the family doctor. However, lack of epidemiological data that allow us to know the true prevalence of GERD in our country and the available prevalence data for countries in our area show considerable variability.
This difficulty in accessing reliable epidemiological data lies both in the absence of a gold standard to confirm or rule out with certainty the existence of GERD as the great clinical variability that can occur with this condition (GERD with esophagitis GERD without esophagitis, heartburn functional, etc.).. Although pH-metry has been a breakthrough in the detection of pathological reflux, is not without limitations in sensitivity and specificity, and its high cost is not applicable in large population studies.
The term includes both GERD patients at risk of complications (esophagitis) resulting from gastroesophageal reflux, and patients who experience a significant impairment of their well-being (quality of life) due to symptoms caused by reflux. Reflux esophagitis, whose frequency in the general population has been estimated at 2%, defines a group of patients who presented histopathological lesions secondary to reflux. Moreover, since many individuals have mild symptoms and very occasional reflux is accepted, by consensus, to consider that an individual has a disease heartburn reflux should be afflicted with a frequency of two or more times per week.
The objective of this review is to update, trying to update concepts of the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of GERD.
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