A report of five-year surveillance of elderly subjects with symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To sum up the trend of changes in symptoms of prolonged symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux(GERD), and discuss the relationship between reflux symptoms and the medical treatment in the elderly patients with GERD. Methods 98 elderly GERD patients over 60 years old were followed up for 5 years through questionaires. The changes of reflux symptoms and effect of medication were analyzed. Results Reflux symptoms were improved in 71 subjects (72.4%), disappeared in 10, worsened in 9, and remained unchanged in 18. The symptom improvement rate of medication group was significantly higher than that of non-medication group(P0.05). In 62 subjects who modified their life styles and diet habits, 53 of them had their symptoms improved (85.5%), and 9 of them had their symptoms unchanged (14.5%). Among 98 patients who underwent endoscopic examination, 44 were found to have erosive esophagitis, and were diagnosed as reflux esophagitis(RE). Although the other 54 subjects complained of typical "heart burn" and regurgitation symptoms, no erosive esophagitis was found with endoscopy, and they were regarded designated as having non-erosive reflux disease(NERD). The symptom improvement rate of NERD group was significantly higher than that of RE group(P