Review article: initial therapy of reflux disease with esomeprazole

Large clinical trials in patients with reflux oesophagitis have shown esomeprazole, 40 mg once daily, to be convincingly superior in the healing of oesophagitis when compared with both omeprazole, 20 mg once daily, and lansoprazole, 30 mg once daily. The greatest advantage for esomeprazole is with healing of the more severe grades of oesophagitis. Esomeprazole, 40 mg once daily, has also been shown to be significantly superior in the treatment of heartburn. Studies in endoscopy-negative patients, or in both oesophagitis and endoscopy-negative patients, have demonstrated good efficacy for esomeprazole, with high levels of symptom control achieved in the first 7 days of therapy.