Definitions and classifications

The Montreal Definition was developed over a 2 year period by the 44 member International Concensus Group to establish a global definition and classification of GERD that could be used clinically by primary care physicians.

What does the Montreal definition of GERD mean to Primary Care? Without clear, consistent terminology or a 'gold standard' for diagnosis, primary care physicians face uncertainty when making disease management decisions about patients presenting with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

This is the first international, evidence-based definition of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in the paediatric population. It is anticipated that this consensus review will be used in the development of clinical practice guidelines and clinical trials in paediatric patients with GERD.

The IWGCO (International Working Group for the Classification of oesophagitis) group, who developed the Los Angeles Classification of GERD, has developed a similar classification for Barrett’s Prague & CM Criteria, and the educational material includes the background, video instructions, an innovative training simulator and more.

The Los Angeles classification is the most recently developed system for the grading of reflux esophagitis, with the key advantage over older systems that it describes the extent of esophagitis independently of other measures of severity in a clear, simple and reproducible way.

As the use of endoscopy in the diagnosis of esophagitis increased, an agreement and classification system were developed on how to describe and classify the appearances of the esophageal mucosa.

The Vienna classification for Crohn's disease was developed by a working party of experts on inflammatory bowel disease, and was first presented at the World Congresses of Gastroenterology held in Vienna in 1998 (Gasche C et al. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 2000;6:8-15).