Dr. Jose Garza joined our group in 2013 and has been providing excellent care for children throughout the South with suspected motility disorders. Recently, he gave our group a fabulous update on what’s new in motility. My notes below may contain errors in transcription and in omission. Along with my notes, I have included some of his slides. His talk had 123 slides; true motilists would be appalled that I haven’t included more of the high resolution tracing slides (though there are a few tomorrow).
Reflux:
- Positioning babies does not improve reflux (related post: Does Positioning Help Infants with Reflux?)
- NICU study of PPIs showed that in patients in which PPIs were continued had more trouble clearing reflux boluses than in children taken off PPIs
- PPIs may worsen oropharyngeal sensory mechanisms in infants
- Related post: Arching in Infants Not Due to Reflux
Colic:
- Colic may be a biorhythm disorder. Infants with colic sleep less and have family history with much higher rates of maternal migraines (related post: Is Infantile Colic a Biorhythm Disorder?)
BRUE:
- 1 of 4 infants with GERD symptoms have oromotor discoordination (related post: Incredible Review of GERD, BRUE, Aspiration, and Gastroparesis)
- BRUE likely related to oromotor discoordination rather than GERD (related post: Blaming Reflux for BRUEs -Not Changing Despite Guideline Recommendations)
Laryngomalacia/Thickening:
- Thickening helps reduce symptoms and hospitalizations
- Thickening can be tricky. Hard to thicken breastmilk and elemental formulas
- IDDSI 10 mL Syringe Flow testing can determine if thickening is at desired level
- Related post: Acid Suppression for Laryngomalacia -Handed This Article to My ENT Colleagues
Impedance
- Predicts mucosal disease in the esophagus (and airway) (related post: Understanding Reflux/Airway Disease and Potential Role of Airway Impedance)
- In adults, but not pediatrics, balloon-based impedance technology has been useful in distinguishing GERD, EoE from normal mucosa
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