Healing of oesophagitis.

The reflux oesophagitis treatment aims to achieve a rapid and sustained symptom relief and a high percentage of lesion healing, apart from preventing the relapses and complications of the disease. For that purpose it is essential to maintain the oesophagic pH above 4 for as long as possible during the day and the night. All these objectives are achieved with the use of the proton pump inhibitors (PPI), which constitute the most effective drug group--being superior to the rest of the antisecretory drugs, such as anti-H2, which are no longer in use in this treatment. In moderate grades (grades A and B), all the PPIs used at their usual dosages show a similar treatment efficacy within 8 weeks. In severe cases (grades C and D), as well as those complicated with digestive haemorrhagia or Barrett's oesophagus, esomeprazole shows a higher treatment efficacy than the rest of the PPIs and is therefore the drug of choice. Furthermore, esomeprazole, an active isomer of omeprazole, shows other properties such as a higher rate of action, a lower interindividual variation and a more prolonged mode of action, which all translate into additional advantages in comparison with the rest of the PPIs.