Efficacy and safety of pantoprazole in the treatment of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease in real-world clinical practice: A multicenter observational study

Introduction. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common condition leading to a considerable decrease in the quality of life of patients. Proton pump inhibitors (PPI), including pantoprazole, represent the mainstay of medical treatment of GERD. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of pantoprazole (Nolpaza®) in clinical practice. Aim. To evaluate the clinical efficacy, safety and tolerability of pantoprazole in patients with GERD, as well as the impact of therapy on quality of life and treatment adherence. Materials and methods. A multicenter observational study included 10,883 patients with GERD (with and without esophagitis) who received pantoprazole (40 mg/day) for 4–8 weeks. The following parameters of treatment were assessed: changes in symptoms, check-up EGD findings, frequency of adverse reactions, physician and patient satisfaction, and treatment adherence. Results. The study results allowed us to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the therapy used. Improvement was noted in more than 99% of patients (complete disappearance of symptoms in 73.4%). According to EGDS, 74.45% achieved complete remission, 25.08% partial. Adverse events (AE) were registered in 0.28% (headache, constipation, abdominal discomfort). During therapy, adherence to the drug was more than 86%, satisfaction with treatment was more than 94% among doctors and more than 95% among patients. Conclusions. Pantoprazole demonstrated high efficacy in relieving GERD symptoms and healing mucosal lesions, a high safety profile with a minimal risk of adverse events, as well as good tolerability and high patient adherence to this therapy. Our findings favoured the use of pantoprazole as a standard therapy for GERD in real-world clinical practice.