372 / 412
placebo group. Similar to the result of the first follow-up
visit, there was a significantly stronger improvement of the
symptom heartburn in patients receiving esomeprazole. The
comparison of the total RFS reduction between the two
study groups reveals a statistically significant difference in
favor of the esomeprazole group (
P
0.05). In contrast to
esomeprazole recipients, patients receiving placebo did not
show any significant improvement of ventricular oblitera-
tion or laryngeal erythema. After a treatment period of three
months, the final examination revealed a statistically signif-
icant stronger improvement of erythema and diffuse laryn-
geal edema in the esomeprazole group (
P
0.05). The most
significant difference between the study groups was the
much stronger reduction of posterior commissure hypertro-
phy in the esomeprazole group after three months of therapy
(
P
0.01).
Figure 1
Summary of patient flow throughout study. PPI treatment
esomeprazole 20 mg twice daily.
Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Vol 139, No 3, September 2008
147