Clinical and endoscopic evaluation of gastroesophageal reflux disease in patients successfully treated with esomeprazole.

Background: Esomeprazole, an S-isomer of omeprazole, is the first proton pump inhibitor developed as an optical isomer, and it has shown high healing rates in erosive esophagitis.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of esomeprazole in subjects with erosive esophagitis, according to the Los Angeles classification study design: an open, multi-center clinical study.

Material And Methods: Two hundred and eighteen subjects with reflux esophagitis confirmed by endoscopy were included in an open, multi-center study in Brazil. All of them received esomeprazole 40 mg, once daily, for a 4-week period. Subjects who had unhealed esophagitis by week 4 continued the treatment for another 4 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was the healing rates by weeks 4 and 8. The secondary endpoints were the number of patients with symptom resolution by week 4, the number of days to sustained symptom resolution, number of symptom-free days and nights and safety and tolerability of the drug.

Results: Healing rates by weeks 4 and 8 were 82% (confidence interval: 77.4%-87.6%) and 96.1% (confidence interval: 93.5% - 98.8%), respectively. Ninety-nine (99%) of the patients had heartburn resolution by week 2. The most common adverse events were headache (4%), diarrhea (2.6%) and epigastric pain (2.2%).

Conclusion: For the studied period, esomeprazole was shown to be a safe and well-tolerated drug, providing significant healing rates of mucosal breaks, regardless of LA classification, in patients with erosive esophagitis. Esomeprazole was also shown to be effective in quickly relieving symptoms.