1. What exactly is gastroesophageal reflux disease?
Explanation: Simply put, it is the reflux of gastroduodenal contents into the esophagus causing symptoms such as heartburn, which can cause reflux esophagitis, as well as damage to the adjacent tissues of the esophagus such as the throat and airway.
Reflux esophagitis can be detected by endoscopy, but some patients with GERD do not show signs of esophagitis on endoscopy, and this type of GERD is also called endoscopically negative GERD or non-erosive reflux disease (NERD). We hope you will take a careful look at this concept.
2.Is there any special medication for GERD?
Explanation: There is no such thing as an effective drug, but it is mainly a drug that inhibits the secretion of gastric acid. PPI has strong acid-suppressing ability and is an effective drug for GERD. It is effective in relieving GERD symptoms and healing reflux esophagitis.
Usually, the treatment course of PPI for GERD is at least 8 weeks, and the standard dose is recommended to be taken orally 30 minutes before breakfast. After the standard dose of PPI treatment, if the symptoms are partially improved or ineffective, double dose can be changed or the duration of medication can be adjusted; if one PPI is ineffective, try to switch to another PPI.
3.I have reflux esophagitis grade A. How long does it take to heal from the medication in general?
Explanation: 80% of people will heal after 4 weeks of regular medication, and 90% + of people will heal after 8 weeks of time
4, I took eight weeks of medication, but two months later relapsed, this time to continue to take eight weeks?
Explanation: (1) Suppression of gastric acid secretion is the main modality of medication used in internal medicine to treat GERD. Acid suppression therapy consists of two parts: initial therapy and maintenance therapy. The purpose of initial treatment is to relieve heartburn, reflux symptoms and cure reflux esophagitis as soon as possible.
Maintenance therapy is to consolidate treatment and prevent recurrence. It is an important measure to maintain continuous symptom relief. This means continuing the medication for another 8 weeks, or even taking it for a long time. You can see how to maintain treatment below.
(2) Patients with GERD have an extremely high relapse rate after stopping PPI use, so the majority of GERD patients need maintenance therapy, with PPI (such as esomeprazole, etc.) as the drug of choice, with the smallest effective dose to maintain long-term cure purpose.
If you cannot take medication for a long time, if you have recurrent esophagitis, or even if you have a combination of cardia relaxation and esophageal hiatal hernia, you can consider laparoscopic minimally invasive anti-reflux surgical treatment (also known as fundoplication) after our detailed evaluation.
5. Is GERD so difficult to treat?
Explanation: GERD is difficult to treat because of its recurrent nature. Reflux esophagitis is the result of damage caused by acid reflux into the esophagus (it is the result, the performance). The main cause is the weakening of the patient’s own barrier against reflux (it is the cause, the essence).
Esophagitis can heal with medication, but it often comes back after you stop taking it! So most people need to stick to their medication! If you can not adhere to oral medication or drug efficacy gradually weakened, it is possible to consider surgery (treatment of his underlying causes).
6, no surgery means long-term medication?
Explanation: GERD is actually like hypertension, diabetes, etc., is a chronic disease, it is impossible to expect to eat a period of time drugs to cure him, drugs only relieve the symptoms, often repeated with patients: GERD is the essential cause of one of the anti-reflux mechanism is weakened (the most important).
PPI (lazoloid) acid suppressing drugs only inhibit gastric acid secretion and relieve symptoms, but cannot enhance the anti-reflux mechanism. So patients with recurrent episodes should insist on taking medication which is what I said to maintain treatment.
7, some people do not recommend surgery, can serve treatment to adhere to the medication
Explanation: The question of whether to do surgery or not depends on the person, some patients with milder conditions we do not recommend surgery, but a patient with severe esophagitis, recurrent attacks, significant flaccidity of the cardia, even combined with esophageal hiatal hernia (as if the gate of the stomach is loose, broken) such patients do not do surgery? The patient can be treated well with medication, so each specific patient is different, and the treatment plan for each patient is different. Repeatedly said PPI (lazoloid) acid-suppressing drugs only inhibit gastric acid secretion, can not enhance the anti-reflux mechanism. Only surgical treatment can reconstruct the anti-reflux barrier to reduce pathological acid reflux. So it is unscientific and incorrect to oppose surgery alone.
8.Does surgery cure once performance without recurrence?
Explanation: The purpose of surgery is actually to play the role of anti-reflux, and the pathological excessive reflux will be suppressed after surgery! The post-operative effect is better than bad, one of which is to be strictly evaluated before surgery, only strictly in line with the instructions of surgery, post-operative recovery is very good! Of course the surgery is not 100%, throughout the domestic and foreign published articles to see, the remission rate is in more than 90%.
9.How to maintain treatment if I don’t want to operate for the time being?
Explanation: The maintenance treatment methods for GERD mainly include.
(1) Continuous maintenance, which means maintaining the original dose or half dose of PPI qd when the symptoms are relieved and using it for a long time to maintain the long term remission of symptoms and prevent the recurrence of esophagitis.
(2) Intermittent therapy, which means that the dose of PPI remains unchanged but the dosing period is extended, most often in the form of alternate day therapy. In maintenance therapy, if symptoms recur, the dose should be increased to a full PPI maintenance.
(3) On-demand treatment means stopping the drug for observation after successful initial treatment, and once heartburn and reflux symptoms appear, randomly re-dosing until the symptoms disappear.
10.What are the main symptoms of GERD?
Explanation.
I. Esophageal symptoms
1, typical symptoms: heartburn and reflux! Remember these four words!
What is reflux? Reflux is the sensation of stomach contents rushing into the throat or mouth without nausea or exertion, and is called acid reflux when it contains an acid taste or is just sour water.
What is heartburn? Heartburn is a burning sensation behind the sternum or under the glabella (often referred to as the heart fossa), often extending upward from the lower end of the sternum.
The above two symptoms are often realized one hour after a meal and can be aggravated in a flat position, bending over or when intra-abdominal pressure increases (picking up heavy objects, violent coughing, etc.).
2. Atypical symptoms: They are esophageal symptoms other than heartburn and reflux symptoms, including chest pain and difficulty in swallowing.
II. Extra-esophageal symptoms
Caused by reflux irritation or damage to tissues or organs outside the esophagus, such as chronic laryngitis, chronic cough and asthma, and foreign body sensation in the pharynx.
What is foreign body sensation in the pharynx? Patients are often seen with foreign body sensation in the pharynx. Simply put, there is discomfort in the pharynx, a feeling of cotton ball or blockage, but no real difficulty in swallowing, and some patients even feel that there is phlegm in the pharynx but cannot cough it up.