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Belching in children: Prevalence and association with gastroesophageal reflux disease
Author(s) -
Masui Daisuke,
Nikaki Kornilia,
Sawada Akinari,
Sonmez Shirley,
Yazaki Etsuro,
Sifrim Daniel
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
neurogastroenterology and motility
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.489
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1365-2982
pISSN - 1350-1925
DOI - 10.1111/nmo.14194
Subject(s) - interquartile range , reflux , medicine , gastroenterology , pathological , disease , postprandial , population , environmental health , insulin
Background Excessive belching is frequently reported in adult patients with gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) and dyspepsia. Although postprandial gastric belching (GB) is considered a physiological mechanism for gastric venting, supra‐gastric belching (SGB) is considered a distinct behavioural disorder. We aimed to define the prevalence of different types of belching and its association with reflux disease in paediatric patients. Methods We retrospectively analysed reflux monitoring studies from 287 patients (median age: 7.0 years; interquartile range 3.0–11.3 years) with a suspicion of GORD. Based on oesophageal acid exposure time (AET) patients were divided in 3 groups: (a) physiological AET, (b) borderline AET and (c) pathological AET. MII‐pH studies were manually edited and reflux disease parameters were measured together with quantification of GB and SGB. Key Results Two hundred one children (70.0%) had physiological AET (median: 0.8; interquartile range 0.3–1.6), 52 (18.1%) had borderline AET (median: 4.2; interquartile range 3.4–5.3) and 34 (11.9%) had pathologic AET (median: 10.7; interquartile range 9.1–14.2). Gastric belching was observed in all studies. Gastric belching related reflux was more frequently observed in patients with borderline and pathological AET ( p < 0.001). This was more common in older children. SGB were observed in only 7 (2.4%) children (age range: 8–17years) in our population and all patients had Physiological AET. Only 3 (1%) patients had pathological number of SGB (>13/24 h). Conclusions and Inferences Gastric belching related reflux is observed in children with increased AET. SGB is very rare in the paediatric population.