PATHOLOGICAL GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX IN CHILDREN: ETIOLOGICAL FACTORS AND PROGNOSIS OF DISEASE COURSE

The paper studied and analyzed risk factors for pathologic gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in 64 children aged from 3 weeks to 3 years, and an assessment of their relevance to predict the severity of the disease. Control group consisted of 59 healthy children at the same age. Inclusion criteria were absence of acute infectious-inflammatory diseases and concomitant somatic pathology at the time of the survey, term delivery, normal birth weight. Studies have revealed that statistically significant risk factors for pathological GER in children are prematurity, disease of the esophagus and stomach, and mitral valve prolapse in parents. Prognostically unfavorable clinical symptoms in children are physical impairment, belching, regurgitation, symptom of a “wet pillow”, dysphonia. The presence of factor connection of pathological GER in children with symptoms of connective tissue dysplasia testifies to need in further research for possible genetic mechanisms of this condition development.