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Editorial |
NERD: a new approach in managing reflux symptoms
a School of Medicine and Health, Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University, Stockton on Tees, UK
b Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
Correspondence to: Dean Pali S. Hungin, School for Medicine and Health, Durham University, Wolfson Research Institute, Queen's Campus, Stockton on Tees, United Kingdom, Phone: +44 (0) 191 33 40375, Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 40374, Email: A.P.S.Hungin@durham.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Clinical revolutions come and go but doctors have to deal with the constancy of their patients and their problems. The advent of the acid suppression drugs, particularly the proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), initiated a revolution in the management of upper gastrointestinal problems. This was particularly effective for the management of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), with the promise of a near abolition of symptoms. Suppressing acid was the key. The truth, as so often is the case, has however, turned out to be more complex and a little different.1 The original relatively simple entity of heartburn and reflux disease has transformed into a complex arborisation of clinical problems that embraces systemic symptoms, major quality of life issues, laryngeal and pulmonary problems and even a neoplastic threat - Barrett's! Now, to add further woe to the plight of both physician and patient comes NERD (non-erosive reflux disease); an entity that cannot be
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