Refractory Heartburn: A Challenging Problem in Clinical Practice

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a condition which develops when the reflux of stomach contents causes troublesome symptoms and/or complications. Heartburn and regurgitation are the typical symptoms of GERD. The treatment of GERD encompasses lifestyle modifications, pharmacological, endoscopic, and surgical therapy. The majority of the patients respond to 4–8 weeks of proton-pump inhibitors therapy, but 20–42% will demonstrate partial or complete lack of response to treatment. While these patients have been considered as having refractory heartburn, a subset of them does not have GERD or have not been adequately treated. The main causes of refractory heartburn include: poor compliance; inadequate proton-pump inhibitors dosage; incorrect diagnosis; comorbidities; genotypic differences; residual gastroesophageal reflux; eosinophilic esophagitis and others. Treatment is commonly directed toward the underlying cause of patients’ refractory heartburn.