Abstract
Although there is a wide range of diseases caused by gastric acid reflux and the number of cases is on the rise, it is difficult for the laryngologist to make the correct diagnosis. The treatment for laryngopharyngeal reflux can be grouped into 3 categories - changes in lifestyle, medication, and surgery. The medication used to treat laryngopharyngeal reflux are prokinetic agents and acid supressive agents such as antacids, H2 blockers, and PPIs(Proton pump inhibitor). Rabeprazole sodium($Pariet^{\circledR}$) is a newly developed agent belonging to the PPI group, but in contrast with the existing drugs such as omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole, has a low dependency on CYP2C19 during the metabolic cycle. Thus, it is known to have a quick but fixed antiacid effect and less individual differences. We analyzed 2166 patients from 32 hospitals who were prescribed $Pariet^{\circledR}$ from May, 2001 to April, 2002. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to the duration of treatment - Group 1: 1-14 days, Group 2: 15-28 days, group 3: 29-56 days, Group 4: more than 56 days. The cases were then analyzed for improvement of 8 symptoms(heart bum, regurgitation, chronic cough, hoarseness, globus sensation, chronic throat clearing, sore throat, and dysphagia), improvement on laryngoscope, usefulness to the doctor, and complication development. Of the total of 2116 patients, 1627(75.1%) cases showed at least 50% improvement of symptoms and the amount of improvement increased according to the duration of medical treatment. Most of the patients showed objective improvement on the laryngoscope, with 32.9% showing significant improvement and 38.7% showing moderate improvement. 37.6% of the doctors questioned replied that $Pariet^{\circledR}$ was very useful and 50.3% said it was useful, showing that most were satisfied with the treatment results. The complications known to develop after taking PPI are headache, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, constipation, dizziness, fatigue, and of these, only a small percentage of the patients complained of mild headache. $Pariet^{\circledR}$ has shown to be a relatively safe and effective drug for the treatment of laryngopharyngeal reflux.
