RICHMOND, Va. -- November is GERD Awareness Month – How can you tell if you have heartburn or something more serious? Dr. Guilherme Campos is a surgeon at VCU Health that specializes in gastrointestinal, bariatric and weight loss surgery and answers 4 questions about heartburn and when it can be a symptom of something more serious called GERD.
What is GERD and what does VCU Health do to help patients manage it?
GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is a very common intestinal condition that is manifested in about 15% of the general population. What happens is these patients have abnormal reflux of gastric contents into their esophagus, and this can lead to decreasing the quality of the life because of significant symptoms. And we'll get to the symptoms, but the inflammation in the esophagus and some other changes in the lining of the esophagus that can lead to more serious problems.
What are the most common symptoms of GERD?
We divide them in what we call typical and atypical symptoms. The typical symptoms are heartburn that is a burning sensation that starts in your epigastrium, which is the upper, central region of the abdomen, located just below the ribs and it moves towards behind your breastbone. This is the most common symptom of GERD. Two others are regurgitation when people feel their food or gastric contents coming up, or dysphagia which is difficulty or pain at swallowing. The third symptom is a warning sign. If you have difficulty or pain when you swallow look for a doctor immediately.
The atypical symptoms are chronic cough or tooth decay, or otitis media (middle ear infection), or recurrent pneumonia in the absence of or with the atypical symptoms.
What type of more serious issues can GERD cause?
The most common thing that we see are patients who have inflammation in their esophagus is esophagitis, which can lead to Barrett’s esophagus. Barrett's esophagus is a pre-cancerous condition that needs to have screening and surveillance so it doesn't turn into a very deadly condition called esophageal adenocarcinoma or cancer of the esophagus. If you are a person that is above 50 with chronic symptoms, especially if you are part of the white population, if you smoke and if you're obese, you should likely have a screening endoscopy if you have symptoms of GERD to make sure you don’t have the pre-cancerous condition.
What are some of the treatment options for GERD and what makes VCU Health's approach unique?
The treatment includes lifestyle modification, weight loss and a few medications like proton pump inhibitors and more recently we prescribe medications called PCABS that are potassium-competitive acid blockers.
The medications can work wonders on a lot of patients. However, there are surgical and endoscopic treatments if you do not want to take the medication in the long term. An endoscopic treatment, the most common one used is a trans-oral fundoplication. The procedure strengthens the valve that prevents stomach acid from flowing back up the esophagus. This can also be done laparoscopically and there are many treatments that can be done using robotic or laparascopic techniques to reinforce the lower esophageal sphincter to prevent reflux. Another common condition associated with GERD is a hiatal hernia that sometimes needs to be fixed at the same time of the surgical procedure. For more information, visit www.vcuhealth.org. This segment is sponsored by VCU Health.
VCU Medical Center's gastroenterology and GI surgery was recently named high performing by U.S. News and World Report.
{*THIS SEGMENT IS SPONSORED BY VCU HEALTH*}
