Characteristics of gastroesophageal reflux in pediatric patients with neurological impairment.

PURPOSE: To clarify the characteristics of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in pediatric patients with neurological impairment (NI).

METHODS

Twenty-six patients with NI, 1-17-year-old, fed via a nasogastric tube were categorized based on the absence (group I) or presence (group II) of abnormal GER, defined with multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring as %time with an esophageal pH <4.0 being ≥5.0% or number of liquid/mixed bolus reflux events(RE) >70 in 24 h.

RESULTS

%Time and number of distal and proximal bolus REs were not significantly different between acid and nonacid REs. %Time of acid bolus RE and that of acid and total number of distal and proximal bolus REs were significantly higher in group II than in group I. Mean acid clearance time was significantly longer in group II. Median bolus clearance time was similar between the groups. No bolus RE parameters were significantly different between acid and nonacid REs in group I. Acid bolus RE was significantly higher than nonacid RE in terms of %time and number of proximal bolus RE in group II.

CONCLUSION

Acid REs significantly increased in pediatric patients with NI with abnormal GER. The number of acid and nonacid REs was comparable in patients without abnormal GER.