Extraesophageal symptoms result from exposure of the upper aerodigestive tract to gastric contents. This causes a variety of symptoms, including hoarseness, postnasal drip, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, indigestion, wheezing, globus pharyngeus, and chronic throat-clearing. Some people with<unk>  have heartburn, while others have little to no heartburn as<unk> ed stomach contents do not remain in the esophagus long enough to irritate the surrounding tissue. Individuals with more severe forms of<unk>  may experience abrasion of tooth enamel due to intermittent presence of gastric contents in the oral cavity. Additionally,<unk>  can cause inflammation in the vocal tract which results in the symptom of dysphonia or hoarseness. Hoarseness is considered to be one of the primary symptoms of<unk>  and is associated with complaints such as strain, vocal fatigue, musculoskeletal tension, and hard glottal attacks, all of which can reduce a person's ability to communicate effectively. Moreover,<unk>  patients may try to compensate for their hoarseness by increasing muscular tension in their vocal tract. This hyper-functional technique adopted in response to the inflammation caused by<unk>  can lead to a condition called muscle tension dysphonia and may persist even after the hoarseness and inflammation has disappeared. A speech-language pathologist will often need to be involved to help resolve this maladaptive, compensatory pattern through the implementation of voice therapy.<unk>  presents as a chronic and intermittent disease in children.<unk>  in children and infants tends to manifest with a unique set of symptoms. Symptoms seen in children with<unk>  include a cough, hoarseness, stridor, sore throat, asthma, vomiting, globus sensation, wheezing, aspiration and recurrent pneumonia. Common symptoms of<unk>  in infants include wheezing, stridor, persistent or recurrent cough, apnea, feeding difficulties, aspiration, regurgitation, and failure to thrive. Moreover,<unk>  in children is commonly concomitant with laryngeal disorders such as laryngomalacia, subglottic stenosis, and laryngeal papillomatosis. Relationship to GERD Illustration of the superior view of the larynx. Tissues lining laryngeal structures, including the vocal folds, may be damaged in<unk> .<unk>  is often regarded as a subtype of GERD that occurs when stomach contents flow upward through the esophagus and reach the level of the larynx and pharynx. However,<unk>  is associated with a distinct presentation of symptoms.<unk>  and GERD frequently differ in the relative prevalence of heartburn and throat clearing. While heartburn is present in over 80% of GERD cases, it occurs in only 20% of<unk>  cases. Throat clearing shows the opposite prevalence pattern, occurring in approximately 87% of<unk>  cases and in fewer than 5% of GERD cases. Unlike GERD,<unk>  also poses a risk for bronchitis or pneumonitis as<unk>  of stomach acid to the level of the larynx can result in aspiration.<unk>  is also commonly associated with erythema, or redness, as well as edema in the tissues of the larynx that are exposed to gastric contents. In contrast, most cases of GERD are nonerosive, with no apparent injury to the mucosal lining of the esophageal tissue exposed to the<unk> ed material. Differences in the molecular structure of the epithelial tissue lining the<unk>  region may be partly responsible for the different symptomatic manifestations of<unk>  in comparison to GERD. In contrast to the resistant stratified squamous epithelium lining the esophagus, the larynx is lined by ciliated respiratory epithelium, which is more fragile and susceptible to damage. While the epithelium lining the esophagus is capable of withstanding as many as 50 instances of exposure to gastric contents each day, which is the uppermost estimate considered to be within the range of normal physiologic functioning, injury to laryngeal epithelium can occur following exposure to only small amounts of acidic gastric contents.
Laryngopharyngeal reflux
Subglottic stenosis
Laryngomalacia
Velopharyngeal insufficiency
Laryngotracheal stenosis
Post-nasal drip
Exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction
Nasal septum deviation