[Management of gastroparesis and functional dyspepsia after cisapride withdrawal]

Dyspepsia is a common symptom frequently encountered in general practice. Functional dyspepsia is an exclusion diagnosis after an organic cause has been ruled out, and is a defined entity which can be subdivised in two different subtypes based on the cluster of symptoms, namely epigastric pain and postprandial distress syndromes. The term gastroparesis is used when persistently and severly delayed gastric emptying is found in the absence of mechanical obstruction. Helicobacter pylori infection should be treated, although symptomatic benefice is small. Proton pumps inhibitors offer a clinical benefit in epigastric pain syndrome, whereas prokinetics are probably useful in postprandial distress syndrome. Cisapride has been withdrawn last year due to the risk of potential severe cardiac arrythmies. Domperidone is safer, although caution has to be paid in long-term use because of potential ventricular arrythmies. Dietary advice and psychological therapies might be a useful adjunct. There are difficulties with new treatment development for functional dyspepsia, due to pathophysiological heterogeneity, lack of well-accepted endpoints, a huge placebo effect, and unconfirmed results in large clinical studies after early positive results for promising drugs. Acotiamide, a new cholinesterase inhibitor improving dyspeptic symptoms is not yet available in Europe.