Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment in 2021

Abstract

Laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD) is an inflammatory condition of the upper aerodigestive tract mucosa induced by reflux content from stomach. Some of vocal cord diseases are associated with laryngopharyngeal reflux. Because of the pathophysiological features, proton pump inhibitor shows therapeutic effect on some vocal cord diseases. As like that, the gastric reflux contents can make macroscopic or microscopic morphological changes in the upper aerodigestive tract mucosa. Although the pathophysiology of LPRD is relatively clear, clinical diagnosis is still difficult. The diagnosis of LPRD includes objective tests such as 24-hours multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH metry and subjective tests such as questionnaire method. However, the objective verification of reflux is difficult due to invasiveness of the method, and the questionnaire methods have limitations because many symptoms are not specific for LPRD. Moreover, most methods are not fully standardized until now. Despite these limitations, many researchers are struggling to standardize diagnosis and treatment of LPRD, and there are several new achievements recently. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review the recent literature on the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of LPRD, and to systematize our knowledge.