Background: Patients with persistent gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms despite proton pump inhibitors are increasingly encountered. It remains controversial if proton pump inhibitors should be stopped before functional oesophageal tests.
Aim: This meta-analysis compares the positive yield of oesophageal studies performed off versus on proton pump inhibitors.
Methods: Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched for eligible studies. Outcomes assessed were the number of subjects with: elevated oesophageal acid exposure time when studied off versus on proton pump inhibitors; positive symptom index (≥50%) and/or positive symptom association probability (≥95%) for acid reflux; and/or non-acid reflux events off versus on proton pump inhibitors. The random effects model was applied.
Results: Fifteen studies (n = 5033 individuals; 33% on proton pump inhibitors; 32% men; mean age 52.1 years) were analysed. Pooled risk ratio for the comparison of high oesophageal acid exposure time off versus on proton pump inhibitors was 2.16 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.42-3.28). The risk ratio of a positive symptom index (acid reflux) was 2.64 (95% CI 1.52-4.57) and the risk ratio of a positive symptom association probability (acid reflux) was 2.94 (95% CI 2.31-3.74). Conversely, the risk ratio of a positive symptom index (non-acid reflux) was 0.96 (95% CI 0.49-1.88) and risk ratio of a positive symptom association probability (non-acid reflux) was 0.54 (95% CI 0.30-0.99).
Conclusions: Oesophageal studies after proton pump inhibitor cessation improve the positive yield for acid reflux-related events but reduce the detection of symptomatic non-acid reflux events.
Keywords: Reflux evaluation; acid reflux; gastroesophageal reflux disease; non-acid reflux.