GERD – Barrett’s Esophagus Risk Factors

Transcript

What’s important, let’s say you go to your doctor and they say you have Barrett’s esophagus. Well, what’s the significance of that? It may become a precancerous condition. But what’s important to know is whether you have what’s called Barrett’s esophagus with dysplasia, because the dysplasia means that you have these abnormal cells present. Now, if a patient, let’s say, has Barrett’s Esophagus and their symptoms remain the same, then you should probably repeat their upper endoscopy in three years to see if the Barrett’s has changed. Has it progressed? Now, let’s have another scenario. Patient has Barrett’s esophagus with low grade dysplasia, so there is some change in the cells, but it’s relatively low grade. That patient, again, is at some risks for possibly developing cancers. It’s small risk, so you should repeat the screening endoscopy in a year.