Abstract
Objectives: To analyze the incidence of pharyngeal
reflux in laryngopharyngeal reflux patients over a 24-hour period and
find out the key timing of pharyngeal reflux.
Design: Retrospective descriptive analysis
Setting : Single institution.
Participants : Sixty-nine patients with LPR and twenty-six
normal controls
Methods: We reviewed 69 patients who visited our clinic
with LPR-related symptoms and were proven to have pharyngeal reflux via
24‐hour multichannel intraluminal
impedance‐pH (24hr MII‐pH) monitoring. Quantitative analysis was
conducted for the LPR profiles, such as the acidity of reflux, nighttime
reflux, and positional reflux. The time series of pharyngeal reflux
episodes and mealtimes were analyzed over a 24-hour period. Also, we
recruited 26 normal controls. We compared the timing of pharyngeal
reflux between LPR patients and asymptomatic controls.
Results: The quantitative analysis revealed that
pharyngeal reflux occurred 4.88 ± 4.59 times over 24 hours. Weakly
acidic pharyngeal reflux was more abundant than acidic or weakly
alkaline reflux. Pharyngeal reflux occurred mainly during daytime in the
upright position. The most frequent timing of pharyngeal reflux episodes
was within 2 hours after meals. Additionally, there was no significant
difference of the timing of post-prandial reflux between LPR patients
and asymptomatic controls.
Conclusion: The key timing of pharyngeal reflux in
patients with LPR was post-prandial 2 hours.
Keywords. Laryngopharyngeal Reflux; 24-Hour Multichannel
Intraluminal Impedance pH Monitoring; Reflux Type