Presence of Esophagitis and Gastritis in Gastroparesis vs Non-Gastroparesis Patients

Introduction: Gastroparesis is a disorder with delayed gastric emptying in the absence of mechanical obstruction. There is limited literature regarding the association of esophagitis and gastritis in gastroparesis patients in comparison to non-gastroparesis patients. In this study, we compared esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) findings in patients with gastroparesis compared with non-gastroparesis patients. Methods: A retrospective study was performed on patients with gastroparesis undergoing a gastric per oral endoscopic pyloromyotomy (GPOEM) procedure and randomly selected patients without a documented history of gastroparesis who underwent an EGD for other reasons within our hospital system between 07/2021- 04/2023. Results: A total of 140 patients were studied, 71 with gastroparesis and 69 without a documented history of gastroparesis. The average age of gastroparesis patients was 50.83 years, and the average age of the non-gastroparesis group was 51.93 years. There was no significant difference in PPI use between both groups. Diabetes was associated with having gastroparesis vs not having gastroparesis (50.70% vs 30.43% respectively, P-value < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the presence of esophagitis between both groups (16.90% in gastroparesis patients vs non-gastroparesis patients 20.30%, P-value 0.766). However, there was a significant difference in the presence of gastritis (22.53% in gastroparesis group vs 59.42% in non-gastroparesis group, P-value < 0.01) and presence of food content found on EGD (8.45% in gastroparesis patients vs 0.00% in non-gastroparesis patients, P-value 0.04) (Table 1). Conclusion: There is limited literature describing the association of esophagitis and gastritis in gastroparesis patients in comparison to non-gastroparesis patients. Contrary to our thought, this study found significantly higher prevalence of gastritis in the non-gastroparesis patients when compared to the gastroparesis group even though there was a higher prevalence of retained food content in the gastroparesis group. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of esophagitis between both populations. These findings seem to suggest that esophagitis and gastritis are primarily attributed to factors independent of gastroparesis. Further investigation with a larger number of patients and pH monitoring data will be helpful. Table 1. - Baseline Demographic Characteristics and EGD Findings in Gastroparesis vs Non-gastroparesis Patients Variable Gastroparesis Non-gastroparesis P-value Age 50.83 51.93 0.666 Gender Male 18 22 0.504 Female 53 47 Ethnicity White 46 29 African American 21 38 Hispanic 3 1 Other 1 1 PPI Use 64 57 0.292 History of Diabetes No 35 48 0.004 Yes 8 (Type 1), 28 (Type 2) 0 (Type 1), 21 (Type 2) Esophagitis Present 12 14 0.766 Gastritis Present 16 41 < 0.001 Retained Food Content 6 0 0.040