Gastroesophageal reflux disease (
GERD) is a chronic, relapsing disease that can progress to major complications. Affected patients have poorer health-related quality of life than the general population. As
GERD requires continued
therapy to prevent relapse and complications, most patients with erosive
esophagitis require long-term
acid suppressive treatment. Thus
GERD results in a significant cost burden and poor health-related quality of life. The effective treatment of
GERD provides symptom resolution and high rates of remission in erosive
esophagitis, lowers the incidence of
GERD complications, improves health-related quality of life, and reduces the cost of this disease.
Proton pump inhibitors are accepted as the most effective initial and maintenance treatment for
GERD. Oral
pantoprazole is a safe, well tolerated and effective initial and maintenance treatment for patients with nonerosive
GERD or erosive
esophagitis. Oral
pantoprazole has greater efficacy than
histamine H(2)-receptor antagonists and generally similar efficacy to other
proton pump inhibitors for the initial and maintenance treatment of
GERD. In addition, oral
pantoprazole has been shown to improve the quality of life of patients with
GERD and is associated with high levels of patient satisfaction with
therapy.
GERD appears to be more common and more severe in the elderly, and
pantoprazole has shown to be an effective treatment for this at-risk population.