Incidental Laryngeal Findings in Routine Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) refers to the backflow of acidic stomach content into the larynx, pharynx, and upper aerodigestive tract. The diagnosis of LPR is based on the patient's history and findings of the laryngoscopy associated with LPR. Other possible manifestations consistent with LPR symptoms include laryngeal cancer, vocal fold granulomas, Reinke's space edema, and vocal polyps. In this study, we compared the characteristics of patients with LPR symptoms and incidental laryngeal findings (ILF) in the laryngoscopic evaluation to those without ILF (WILF). OBJECTIVES: Determine the characteristics of LPR-symptomatic patients with ILF versus WILF. METHODS: In this retrospective study, we examined 160 medical charts from patients referred to the otolaryngology clinic at Galilee Medical Center for LPR evaluation 2016-2018. The reflux symptoms index (RSI), reflux finding score (RFS), and demographics of the patient were collected. All patients with a positive RSI score for LPR (RSI > 9) were included, and the profiles of patients with versus without ILF on laryngoscopy examination were compared. RESULTS: Of the 160 patients, 20 (12.5%) had ILF during laryngoscopy. Most had vocal cord findings such as leukoplakia (20%), polyps (15%), and nodules (20%). Hoarseness, throat clearing, swallowing difficulty, breathing difficulties, and total RSI score were significantly higher in patients with ILF. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of LPR symptoms may provide otolaryngologists with a tool to identify patients with other findings on fiberoptic laryngoscopy. A laryngoscopic examination should be part of the examination of every patient with LPR to enable diagnosis of incidental findings.

Inter-Rater Variability of Reflux Finding Score Amongst Otolaryngologists.

BACKGROUND: Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is an extra-oesophageal variant of gastro-oesophgeal reflux disease. Patients often do not present with the classic reflux symptoms of heartburn or regurgitation. Accurate diagnosis of LPR can be challenging. The reflux finding score (RFS) is system based on the assessment of eight parameters seen on fibre optic laryngoscopy, used to determine the presence and the severity of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). Scoring the RFS is subjective and highly dependent on the examiner's eye and experience. In this study, we investigated the inter-rater reliability between three otolaryngologists scoring a large library of video-recorded laryngoscopies for RFS. AIM: To evaluate the usefulness of RFS in daily clinical practice by assessing inter-rater reliability among otolaryngologists when interpreting a bank of identical fibre optic laryngoscopy examinations. METHOD: Three board-certified otolaryngologists with different subspecialist interests examined video-recorded fibre optic laryngoscopies of 193 patients with or without LPR symptoms and rated each video for RFS. Statistical analysis was performed. Results were compared to determine the inter-rater reliability. RESULTS: Fair to poor correlation was found between the three expert raters for total RFS score, as well as for RFS component items with nonbinary outcomes. For the dichotomous items, the inter-rater reliability was slight to moderate. Inter-rater correlation for determining whether an examination is pathological or nonpathological was fair. CONCLUSION: The RFS alone was not reliable for confirming the diagnosis of LPR, due to low inter-rater reliability and the subjective nature of the scoring system.