Assessment of the Current Knowledge and Practice of General Practitioners Towards Laryngopharyngeal Reflux in Saudi Arabia

Mujtaba Alrayah; Rajab Alzahrani; Mohammed A Alghamdi; Kholoud M Alghamdi; Faisal F Almutairi; Anwar A Alghamdi; Raghad A Alzahrani; Taif A Bajaber; Tahani F Alanazi; Haya A Alnafisah

doi:10.7759/cureus.38043

Assessment of the Current Knowledge and Practice of General Practitioners Towards Laryngopharyngeal Reflux in Saudi Arabia

Cureus. 2023 Apr 24;15(4):e38043. doi: 10.7759/cureus.38043. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha, SAU.
² Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha, SAU.
³ Department of Medicine, Unaizah College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Unaizah, SAU.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Fakeeh College of Medical Sciences, Jeddah, SAU.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, SAU.
⁶ Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, SAU.

Abstract

Background General practitioners (GPs) have a significant role in the diagnosis of patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Some published data revealed a lack of knowledge among GPs about the disease, consequently, this lack of knowledge impacted their performance. This survey aims to assess the current knowledge and practice of general practitioners regarding laryngopharyngeal reflux in Saudi Arabia. Methodology This survey study was conducted to assess the current knowledge and practice of general practitioners regarding laryngopharyngeal reflux in Saudi Arabia using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed and collected from the five regions in Saudi Arabia, which are The Central Region (Riyadh, Qassim), Eastern Region (Dammam, Al-Kharj, Al-Ahasa), Western Region (Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah), Southern Region (Asir, Najran, Jizan), and Northern Region (Tabuk, Jouf, Hail). Results In the current study, we collected data from 387 general practitioners, 61.8% of whom were aged between 21-30 years old, and 57.4% of the participants were males. Moreover, 40.6% of the participants thought that both LPR and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) share pathophysiology, however, they are two different diseases considering their clinical presentation. Moreover, it was found that heartburn was the most known symptom of LPR among the participants (Mean score 2.14 (SD=1.31), where a lower score indicated more relation). Considering the treatment of LPR, 40.6% and 40.3% of the participants reported using proton pump inhibitors once or twice daily respectively. In contrast, antihistamine/H2 blockers, alginate, and magaldrate were used to a lesser extent as reported by 27.1%, 21.7%, and 12.1%. Conclusion The current study showed limited knowledge among general practitioners considering LPR with a higher rate of referring patients to other departments depending on symptoms which may increase the pressure on other departments of mild cases.

Keywords: gastroesophageal reflux disease; general practitioners; heartburn; laryngopharyngeal reflux disease; proton pump inhibitors (ppi).