Gastro-esophageal reflux is the backflow of stomach contents into the esophagus. When this condition causes damage to the esophagus and adjacent upper respiratory tract or causes complaints, it is defined as gastroesophageal reflux disease.
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Symptoms
Patients may have complaints arising from the esophagus such as pain in the chest, acid reflux, difficulty in swallowing, painful swallowing, heart attack-like chest pain, increased salivary gland secretion, as well as coughing, wheezing, constant nasal cleaning desire, narrowing of the trachea, leakage of stomach contents into the lungs. There may be extra-esophageal findings such as pneumonia and lung tissue damage as a result of the disease.
Tests Used in Diagnosis
Many tests can be used for diagnosis. However, the most important factor in the decision of whether there is reflux disease is the patient's history, from which we received the patient's complaints. In addition to the history, acid reflux can be measured at a certain time interval, which we call PPI test, radiological examinations, endoscopic examinations, manometric measurements, PH monitoring.
When Should Patients Have Endoscopy?
- Patients aged 50 years and older or the patient's complaints last longer than 5 years
- Obese, smokers
- The patient has complaints every day
- Patients with a first-degree relative with Barrett's esophagus or upper gastrointestinal tract cancer
- If the patient's complaint persists despite drug therapy
- Persistent vomiting, difficulty swallowing, painful swallowing, involuntary weight loss, and anemia with no other cause
- Treatment
The most important treatment step is the regulation of lifestyle. If these recommendations are not followed, the most important part of the treatment will be skipped. First of all, wearing tight clothes that will increase intra-abdominal pressure should be avoided. Another precaution is not to leave meal times too late. Having a high head of the bed or sleeping with two pillows, avoiding fatty and spicy foods, carbonated drinks, salted foods and chocolate will be helpful in reducing reflux symptoms.
Drug treatments can be used. Although intermittent and continuous treatment methods are used, this decision should be individualized according to the patient by evaluating the patient's complaint and response to treatment.
Treatment can be done with endoscopic methods, but the treatment methods in this group are still in the development stage and more studies are needed to evaluate the results clearly.
Surgical methods are another treatment method and the number of patients who are given surgery is less. These patients may experience difficulty in swallowing and bloating due to gas accumulation in the abdomen after surgical intervention. Surgical intervention should be considered in patients who require continuous drug therapy, patients with complications due to GERD, drug resistance, reflux affecting the respiratory tract and pharynx, and treatment-resistant asthma patients with reflux and gastric hernia.
Is Your Food Stuck in Your Throat?
The food that has started to be digested by chewing in the mouth is directed to the pharynx and then to the esophagus with the help of the tongue that acts as a paddle. The esophagus muscles contract at the top of the food and relax at the bottom. Thus, the food moves towards the stomach. During this process, formations in the esophagus (cells, cancer, etc.), neurological problems that disrupt the functioning of the muscles, create the feeling of getting food stuck in our throat while we eat. There is also an increased risk of esophageal disorders in some rheumatic diseases. Radiological evaluation and endoscopic evaluation are of great importance in the examinations for these disorders. If you have such a problem, you should definitely consult a gastroenterologist.
Attention, no one's stomach burns for no reason 🔥
Heartburn is a common complaint in the community. There could be many reasons for this. Anything that increases stomach acid or increases the sensitivity of the stomach wall can cause heartburn. While fries 🍟, fast food foods🍫🍩 cigarettes and their derivatives, alcohol 🥂-🍻 increase stomach acid; gastritis, helicobacter pylori infection in the stomach, stomach ulcers, stomach cancers increase acid sensitivity by disrupting the structure of the stomach wall.
If you have such complaints and the frequency is increasing, you should definitely consult a gastroenterology specialist.
Those Who Suffer from Stomach Pain Attention!
Pain that starts from the upper abdomen and spreads to various places is usually caused by stomach problems. Nausea, vomiting, and heartburn may accompany this complaint from time to time. Sometimes it is so severe that it can even join with heart attack pain. If we look at the reasons, stomach related diseases, diet irregularities, alcohol and cigarette use come. Stomach pain is seen in most of the stomach related diseases. However, the duration and spread of stomach pain varies according to the disease. Prolonged stomach pain complaints should be evaluated by a specialist.
When Should We Be Afraid of Stomach Ulcer?
On endoscopy, you were told that you have an ulcer in your stomach. Your doctor will tell you after the diet lists, prohibited lists, drugs are started.
it will burn. “…we will do an endoscopy again in a month and see if the ulcer has healed”. So why? Some stomach cancers start with the appearance of ulcers and do not improve quickly with the drug treatment given. That's why stomach ulcers are one of the situations in which we do not feel comfortable until we see and control the healing. So not every ulcer is cancer. But early diagnosis saves lives. I would also like to point out that if there is a cancer focus, the biopsies we take during endoscopy do not cause it to spread.
What Is This Helicobacter Pylori?
In fact, this microbe is acquired during childhood. Generally, it appears more frequently in societies with poor hygienic conditions. During childhood, children do not pay much attention to hygiene conditions between games or in outdoor environments. It may not cause any symptoms in the first period, and may cause a discomfort with diarrhea or nausea and vomiting. When it comes to adulthood, it can cause ulcers in the stomach and duodenum.
It can cause thinning of the stomach wall and even gastric lymphomas in the long term. That's why we should raise our children at a very young age by paying attention to hygiene rules. Please consult your specialist to detect the presence of stomach microbes.
