Evaluation of gastroesophageal reflux in infants treated with osteopathy using the I-GERQ-R questionnaire

Abstract

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in infants has important clinical relevance by high incidence and risk of complications, besides family inconvenience and discomfort for babies. Today, treatment is based on medication for relief of symptoms. The goal of this study is to analyze the impact of osteopathic treatment in the course of GER in babies from zero to one year of age in the city of Curitiba. This is a retrospective pilot study of a database where four clinical files of individuals diagnosed with GERD in clinical treatment were analyzed. The data used for analysis were taken from questionnaire I-GERQ-R starting and ending at the osteopathic treatment. It was observed that in 28 ± 5.72 days scores fell from an average of 15.5 ± 4.45 to 0.50 ± 0.50, determining reduction of all symptoms of reflux. A child presenting respiratory disorders has presented total relief of symptoms. Osteopathy has been effective to eliminate reflux symptoms suggesting that control group studies must be carried out on a statistically significant sample to assess the real relationship between osteopathy and acceleration of improvement of babies with GER. In addition, the questionnaire I-GERQ-R has proved efficient to demonstrate this evolution. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.