Paciente con regurgitación: cómo estudiarla y cuáles son sus principales diagnósticos diferenciales

In gastroenterological practice, gastroesophageal reflux disease is one of the most frequent diagnoses. In this article the potential confounding of gastroesophageal reflux will be raised. According to the Montreal definition, “is a condition that develops when the reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus causes troublesome symptoms and/or complications.” However, it is becoming increasingly clear that sometimes symptoms suspected to be caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease are the expression of other functional and behavioral disorders or even structural lesions. From this complexity arise reflux confounding, where rumination and supragastric belching may present symptoms similar to gastroesophageal reflux disease, be initially treated with the proton pump inhibitor-based guidelines, and thus be mistakenly targeted. Likewise, regurgitation may be the symptomatic expression of different functional disorders and not exclusively a “typical” symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Hence the need and the challenge for the treating physician to correctly identify the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for the patient’s symptoms for a correct therapeutic approach.