Fifteen-hour continuous esophageal pH monitoring: influence of position on gastroesophageal reflux among asymptomatic babies.

Using continuous esophageal pH monitoring, we examined 40 asymptomatic babies to evaluate the influence of different positions (prone, supine, right and left side lying position) on gastroesophageal reflux (GER). Several parameters including percent of time with a pH < 4, numbers of reflux episode, numbers of reflux episode lasting more than 5 min, average duration of longest reflux and average pH were studied. All babies were born fullterm and were 1 to 14 days old (average: 4 days). Male to female ratio was 1.7:1. For all parameters, except for average pH, we obtained more favorable results in prone position (p < 0.05). Continuous esophageal pH monitor is a suitable technique to evaluate GER under physiologic circumstances.