Prevalence and treatment of silent gastro-oesophageal reflux in children with recurrent respiratory disorders

Abstract

Thirty-six infants and children presenting with recurrent respiratory disorders (RRD) as the sole clinical symptom including bronchial asthma (6), recurrent obstructive bronchitis with or without wheezing (18), chronic nocturnal cough (3), recurrent episodes of pneumonia (3), recurrent pharyngitis (3) and recurrent laryngitis (3) were investigated for associated gastro-oesophageal reflux (GER) by oesophagram, endoscopy and continuous 24 h pH monitoring of the distal oesophagus.

The pH monitoring criteria were selected on the basis of a preliminary study comparing statistically measurements of 32 variables recorded in 15 patients who all had clinical, radiological and endoscopic evidence of GER and in 8 asymptomatic controls. Although patients with symptomatic GER differed significantly from the asymptomatic ones for 27 variables examined, 6 variables emerged as having the highest value for discrimination (overlap score 0–1). Among these, the Euler-Byrne index (number of reflux pH<4+4 times the number of reflux episodes of more than 5 min), the percentage of total reflux time and the number of reflux episodes 1 h post-cibal scored 0 (no overlap). GER was considered to be present when at least five of these six parameters were abnormal.

The overeall incidence of GER in children with RRD was 41% (15) when detected by oesophagram and 61% (22) when diagnosed by pH monitoring criteria. In the children with bronchial asthma or with recurrent laryngitis, the percentage of reflux time during sleep was about 40 times higher than in asymptomatic controls and 2 times higher than in those with symptomatic GER. Of the 22 patients with RRD and GER, 9 were elected to have fundoplication because of poor response to medical antireflux management. All of these, showed complete (6) or partial (3) resolution of respiratory symptoms. Of the 13 patients in whom medical therapy was continued, 9 showed satisfactory improvement with a mean follow-up time of 1 year. Silent GER might be an important contributing factor to the severity of some common chronic respiratory disorders in children.