To establish posterior commissure hypertrophy as tool to diagnose laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and to determine whether it can be used as a reliable marker for response to treatment.

A prospective study of 100 patients with voice disorder was conducted. Patients were evaluated using reflux symptom index (RSI) and reflux finding score (RFS) by 70° Hopkins’ rigid laryngoscope. Those patients in whom RFS score was 7 or more were diagnosed to have LPR. These patients were then started on antireflux therapy along with lifestyle modification and were evaluated regularly over a period of 6 months.

The prevalence of LPR in patients with voice disorders was found to be 25%. Mean age was 41.48 years and the male and female ratio was 0.85:1. Posterior commissure hypertrophy was present in 60 out of 100 patients (60%). Among laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD), 23 out of 25 patients (92%) had posterior commissure hypertrophy, out of which only 2 (8.6%) patients showed complete resolution of posterior commissure hypertrophy after 6 months of treatment. A total of 10 patients (43.47%) did not show any change in grading of posterior commissure hypertrophy. And 11 patients (47.82%) showed downgrading of posterior commissure hypertrophy. Sensitivity of posterior commissure hypertrophy for diagnosis of LPR was found to be 92%, whereas specificity was 50.66%.

Posterior commissure hypertrophy can be used as a screening tool for diagnosis of LPR but cannot be used reliably as a clinical marker for response to therapy.

Joshi AA, Chiplunkar BG, Bradoo RA, Shah KD. Posterior Commissure Hypertrophy as Diagnostic and Prognostic Indicator for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux. Int J Phonosurg Laryngol 2015;5(2):57-60.