HEART BURN IN PRIMARY CARE

Introduction: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a chronic and widely prevalent medical condition, with up to forty percent of the general population suffering from its clinical manifestations at least once per month.1 GERD usually develops when the reflux of stomach contents leads to the development of troublesome clinical manifestations or complications. 2 Clinical manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease could generally range from developing heartburn and/or regurgitation to having cough and hoarseness of voice. Although most gastroesophageal reflux disease patients’ clinical manifestations respond following proper medical treatment, the diagnosis and management in those gastroesophageal reflux disease patients whose clinical manifestations do not respond to standard pharmacological agents might be difficult. Aim of work: In this review, we will discuss heart burn in primary care Methodology: We did a systematic search for heart burn in primary care using PubMed search engine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and Google Scholar search engine (https://scholar.google.com). All relevant studies were retrieved and discussed. We only included full articles. Conclusions: Gastroesophageal reflux disease is a chronic, very prevalent condition that is repeatedly encountered in internal medicine. It is usually diagnosed clinically, but specific investigations like endoscopy and pH testing might be important in certain patients with specific clinical manifestations. Despite the fact that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are first choice for treatment, physicians must have good knowledge of their short-term and long-term adverse events. Key words: Heart burn, presentation, causes, management, primary care