Abstract
Objectives: To analyze the incidence of pharyngeal reflux in
laryngopharyngeal reflux patients over a 24-hour period and find out the
key timing of pharyngeal reflux. Design: Retrospective descriptive
analysis Setting: Single institution. Participants: Sixty-nine patients
with LPR and twenty-six normal controls Methods: We reviewed 69 patients
who visited our clinic with LPR-related symptoms and were proven to have
pharyngeal reflux via 24‐hour multichannel intraluminal impedance‐pH
(24hr MII‐pH) monitoring. Quantitative analysis was conducted for the
LPR profiles, such as the acidity of reflux, nighttime reflux, and
positional reflux. The time series of pharyngeal reflux episodes and
mealtimes were analyzed over a 24-hour period. Also, we recruited 26
normal controls. We compared the timing of pharyngeal reflux between LPR
patients and asymptomatic controls. Results: The quantitative analysis
revealed that pharyngeal reflux occurred 4.88 ± 4.59 times over 24
hours. Weakly acidic pharyngeal reflux was more abundant than acidic or
weakly alkaline reflux. Pharyngeal reflux occurred mainly during daytime
in the upright position. The most frequent timing of pharyngeal reflux
episodes was within 2 hours after meals. Additionally, there was no
significant difference of the timing of post-prandial reflux between LPR
patients and asymptomatic controls. Conclusion: The key timing of
pharyngeal reflux in patients with LPR was post-prandial 2 hours.