Kawahara H, et al. – Characteristics of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) were clarified in pediatric patients with neurological impairment (NI). In pediatric patients with NI with abnormal GER, acid reflux events (REs) significantly increased. Among patients without abnormal GER, the number of acids and nonacid REs was similar.

• The researchers categorized 26 patients with NI (1–17-year-old) fed via a nasogastric tube based on the absence (group I) or presence (group II) of abnormal GER.
• They defined them with multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring as %time with an esophageal pH <4.0 being ≥5.0% or number of liquid/mixed bolus reflux events(RE) >70 in 24 h.

• Between acid and nonacid REs, %time and number of distal and proximal bolus REs were not significantly different.
• In group II, %time of acid bolus RE and that of acid and total number of distal and proximal bolus REs were significantly higher than in group I.
• In group II, mean acid clearance time was significantly longer.
• Between the groups, median bolus clearance time was similar.
• In group I, no bolus RE parameters were significantly different between acid and nonacid REs.
• In terms of %time and number of proximal bolus RE, acid bolus RE was significantly higher than nonacid RE in group II.