Efficacy of combined therapy in patients with erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease
Aim: to evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined therapy with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and an esophagoprotector to relieve the symptoms of reflux esophagitis, improve the life quality of patients and achieve faster and complete disease remission. Patients and Methods: a randomized study included 60 patients, including 33 men (mean age 40.96±13.44 years) and 27 women (mean age 48.29±12.69 years) with a duration of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) of 21.85±15.48 months and C/D stage of reflux esophagitis. Depending on the prescribed treatment, the patients were divided into 2 groups of 30 subjects. Patients of the main group received complex therapy: PPI pantoprazole 40 mg once per day and esophagoprotector based on hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate and poloxamer 407. In the comparison group, only pantoprazole was prescribed at the same dosage. The duration of the treatment course in both groups was 4 weeks. Before and after treatment, the presence and severity of complaints were assessed on the Likert scale, life quality according to the SF-36 questionnaire and endoscopic examination data. Results: after the end of the therapy course, a statistically significant decrease in the severity of epigastric burning, regurgitation, substernal pain, gaseous eructation, odynophagia and dysphagia was found both in the main group (in all cases p<0.05, Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test) and the comparison group (in all cases p<0,05, Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test). The use of combination therapy made it possible to achieve a more significant improvement in the life quality of patients in all indicators versus PPI monotherapy. In addition, 3 (10%) patients of the main group achieved endoscopic remission, while there were no such patients in the comparison group. The use of esophagoprotector in addition to PPI made it possible to reach the primary and secondary endpoints significantly more commonly versus during monotherapy. Conclusion: the obtained data indicate the high efficiency and safety of PPI therapy in combination with esophagoprotector for relieving the disease symptoms and improving the life quality of patients, faster and complete remission of reflux esophagitis by additional restoration of the esophageal mucosa resistance. Esophagoprotector as a component of complex therapy together with PPI allows achieving clinical and endoscopic disease remission in patients with erosive esophagitis in shorter terms.