The Role of an Anti-reflux Diet in the Treatment of Chronic Cough Caused by Laryngopharyngeal Reflux

Purpose: To evaluate the role of an anti-reflux diet in the treatment of patients with chronic cough caused by laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR).

Methods: This prospective observational study included patients with chronic cough (lasting over 3 months) and laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) confirmed by hypopharyngeal-esophageal 24-h multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring (HEMII-pH), according to Dubai criteria. Participants were categorized based on cough severity using a visual analog scale (VAS) from 1 to 10. A VAS < 5 was considered to indicate mild cough, whereas a VAS ≥ 5 were considered to indicate severe cough. Patients with mild cough were treated by anti-reflux diet only, while those with severe cough received additional treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and alginates. After 3 months, treatment effectiveness was evaluated by assessing the reduction in cough severity.

Results: In patients with mild cough, anti-reflux diet alone proved to be effective, yielding improvement in 83.3% of cases. Among patients with severe cough, a combination of anti-reflux diet, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), and alginates proved was effective in 81.8% of cases.

Conclusion: Diet alone is an effective and sufficient treatment for mild chronic cough in patients with LPR. For patients with severe chronic cough with LPT, combined anti-reflux measures are effective.