Evaluation of the effectiveness of esomeprazole treatment strategies in the management of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms: a meta-analysis

Here we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of esomeprazole treatment strategies comparing with other proton pump inhibitors (PPI) in clinical practice for six months in the management of patients with symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). An extensive search of the literature focusing on PPI therapeutic evaluation was performed up to December 2014. Risk ratio (RR) with its corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in each study was chosen as the effect size. Cochrane's Q statistic and I2 test were both conducted to evaluate heterogeneity across individual studies. Meta-regression was conducted to explore the source of heterogeneity and sensitive analysis was performed to assess the risk bias for the meta-analysis. Totally, eleven trials with high quality enrolled in the meta-analysis. Esomeprazole therapy (20 mg daily) had lower relapse rates than other drugs during six months maintenance treatment (RR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.55-0.83). Heartburn (RR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.57-0.92) and epigastric pain (RR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.96) were less likely to happen after esomeprazole treatment, and no significant advantage was found on acid regurgitation and dysphagia. Moreover, lower risk for serious adverse events was observed after esomeprazole therapy (RR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.04-1.88). Blind method or difference controlled drugs did not influence heterogeneity across studies. Moreover, the conclusion on acid regurgitation, abdominal pain and dysphagia might be unstable. In GERD patients, esomeprazole 20 mg daily is more effective than other PPIs regarding relapse rates, symptoms of epigastric pain and heartburn, and serious adverse events.