The takeaway message is that PPIs have been perceived of as mainly harmless, without a serious adverse event profile; however, as in other cases, physicians should counsel patients on the risks versus benefits of PPIs-and emphasize that not every person who has heartburn or indigestion needs to take a PPI.
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The proton pump inhibitors are sold by prescription and over-the-counter in some countries. Incident CKD was defined using diagnostic codes at hospital discharge of death in the ARIC group and by sustained outpatient estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m in the Geisinger cohort. “That suggests that perhaps this observed effect is real”. In the study, the researchers have assessed two large sets of data to assess the connection between PPI use and kidney disease in the general population.
Because the new study isn’t a clinical trial, it doesn’t prove that PPI use causes chronic kidney disease, said Dr. Kenneth DeVault, president of the American College of Gastroenterology and chair of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. The results of the data review were then replicated in a further analysis of medical data on 248,751 patients in the Geisinger Health System.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) drugs are taken by millions of people every year and they are found to have various unsafe side effects. Through this way, the medicine prevents ulcers and reduces reflux symptoms like heartburn.
“The 10-year estimated absolute risk of [chronic kidney disease] among the 322 baseline PPI users was 11.8%, while the expected risk had they not used PPIs was 8.5% (absolute risk difference, 3.3%)”, the researchers wrote.
Newer studies now show a link between the drugs and chronic kidney disease, in which the kidneys lose their ability to filter blood effectively.
From the start, PPI users in both groups were more likely to have health problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and heart problems, the study noted.
Heartburn is one of the most common medical complaints, and so heartburn remedies are some of the most prescribed and widely used medications. “In these patients, PPIs should be stopped to determine if symptomatic treatment is needed”, they said in the editorial.
However, it is possible that the PPI users had other risk factors for kidney disease that were not related to the medication, the scientists stated. These medications act on the body by telling the stomach to produce less natural acid, which eases the pain of heartburn (and thus, supposedly, lowering risk for those cancers). The study strongly suggests limiting the use of these medications, and taking them for the shortest periods of time, said Benjamin Lazarus, MBBS, from the Department of Epidemiology in Johns Hopkins University.
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Doctors also might opt to prescribe an H2 blocker like Pepcid, Tagamet or Zantac.
