Q. What is severity of the oesophagitis?
The severity of the oesophagitis resulting from oesophageal reflux is determined by the content of gastric reflux mucosal resistance, clearing rate of oesophagus and rate of gastric emptying. Content of gastric reflux may include partly digested food, pepsin, acid and possibly bile and at times pancreatic enzymes. It is probably this combination, which causes mucosal damage, Symptoms develop when reflux becomes frequent and mucosa of oesophagus becomes sensitive to the reflux contents.