Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2022; 28(28): 3743-3746
Published online Jul 28, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i28.3743
Is patient satisfaction sufficient to validate endoscopic anti-reflux treatments?
Mauro Bortolotti
Mauro Bortolotti, Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic, University of Bologna, Bologna 40138, Italy
Author contributions: Bortolotti M wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest exists.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mauro Bortolotti, MD, Via Massarenti 48, Bologna 40138, Italy. bormau@tin.it
Received: February 21, 2022
Peer-review started: February 21, 2022
First decision: May 29, 2022
Revised: June 8, 2022
Accepted: July 8, 2022
Article in press: July 8, 2022
Published online: July 28, 2022
Processing time: 155 Days and 9.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Endoscopic anti-reflux treatments are being increasingly used instead of anti-reflux surgery. However, most of them have been evaluated only on the ground of subjective symptoms, without performing any objective examination. Furthermore, some also appear to be more effective than surgery in improving acid reflux symptoms, even if their acid exposure is worse, suggesting a reduced sensitivity. The Bernstein test performed after nonablative radio-frequency seems to confirm this hypothesis. Hence, to verify the effectiveness of these esophageal anti-reflux interventions, in addition to evaluating the symptoms before and after the intervention, it is necessary to perform objective examinations.