Title: Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of gel-forming
and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on treatment in patients with
gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms and unsatisfying proton pump inhibitor
therapy.
Version: 0 Date: 17 Apr 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Editors and authors,
The manuscript entitled “Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of
gel-forming and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on to proton pump inhibitor
therapy in the treatment of refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms”
reported that Sobrade® can be used as an add-on treatment in PPI therapy of refractory GERD.
However, there are many concerns as follows;
1. Apart from open-label and uncontrolled study, the main limitation of this study was very short
follow-up time at 2 weeks. Not only the adverse events, but the tolerability and compliance of
patients were unable to be assessed at this short period of follow-up time. Why did the authors
decide to follow-up at 2 weeks?
2. Is this the first study to assess the efficacy of Sobrade® in patients with refractory GERD?
If yes, please state in the manuscript.
3. The introduction part was too long. It can be shorted by omit the detail of general GERD
treatment. Please re-consider.
4. There are many sentences that need the reference. For example, “Sobrade® chewable tablet is
a preparation with a solely physical mode of action and classified as a medical device of lowest
risk (Class 1).”, “It prevents the esophageal mucosa from further GERD induced damages by
a bioadhesive coating through xanthan and carbomer whereby the comprised hyaluronic acid
supports the healing process.” and “However, the low risk product characteristic and the absence
of any adverse events,…”, etc. Please re-check through the manuscript.
5. What is the current indication for using Sobrade®?
6. The data of figures and table was redundant and duplicated. For instant, the data of Table 2
was overlapped to the data of Figure 1 and 2. Please choose either 1 table or 2 figures. Moreover,
the bar chart of figure 3 and 4 can be merged and the information was similar to Table 3.
7. Please provide the definition of correlation in the statistical method. What dose the r2: 0.65
mean? Highly correlation?
8. The first paragraph of discussion part was overlapped to introduction part.
9. The discussion and conclusion part were too long. Please consider shorten.
10. Some words need to be written in full eg. Tab. 2, Fig. 2.
Title: Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of gel-forming
and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on treatment in patients with
gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms and unsatisfying proton pump inhibitor
therapy.
Version: 0 Date: 17 Apr 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Editors and authors,
The manuscript entitled “Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of
gel-forming and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on to proton pump inhibitor
therapy in the treatment of refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms”
reported that Sobrade® can be used as an add-on treatment in PPI therapy of refractory GERD.
However, there are many concerns as follows;
1. Apart from open-label and uncontrolled study, the main limitation of this study was very short
follow-up time at 2 weeks. Not only the adverse events, but the tolerability and compliance of
patients were unable to be assessed at this short period of follow-up time. Why did the authors
decide to follow-up at 2 weeks?
2. Is this the first study to assess the efficacy of Sobrade® in patients with refractory GERD?
If yes, please state in the manuscript.
3. The introduction part was too long. It can be shorted by omit the detail of general GERD
treatment. Please re-consider.
4. There are many sentences that need the reference. For example, “Sobrade® chewable tablet is
a preparation with a solely physical mode of action and classified as a medical device of lowest
risk (Class 1).”, “It prevents the esophageal mucosa from further GERD induced damages by
a bioadhesive coating through xanthan and carbomer whereby the comprised hyaluronic acid
supports the healing process.” and “However, the low risk product characteristic and the absence
of any adverse events,…”, etc. Please re-check through the manuscript.
5. What is the current indication for using Sobrade®?
6. The data of figures and table was redundant and duplicated. For instant, the data of Table 2
was overlapped to the data of Figure 1 and 2. Please choose either 1 table or 2 figures. Moreover,
the bar chart of figure 3 and 4 can be merged and the information was similar to Table 3.
7. Please provide the definition of correlation in the statistical method. What dose the r2: 0.65
mean? Highly correlation?
8. The first paragraph of discussion part was overlapped to introduction part.
9. The discussion and conclusion part were too long. Please consider shorten.
10. Some words need to be written in full eg. Tab. 2, Fig. 2.
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of gel-forming
and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on treatment in patients with
gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms and unsatisfying proton pump inhibitor
therapy.
Version: 0 Date: 17 Apr 2023
Reviewer's report:
Dear Editors and authors,
The manuscript entitled “Multicentre prospective study to evaluate effectiveness and safety of
gel-forming and hyaluronic-acid containing chewable tablets as add-on to proton pump inhibitor
therapy in the treatment of refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms”
reported that Sobrade® can be used as an add-on treatment in PPI therapy of refractory GERD.
However, there are many concerns as follows;
1. Apart from open-label and uncontrolled study, the main limitation of this study was very short
follow-up time at 2 weeks. Not only the adverse events, but the tolerability and compliance of
patients were unable to be assessed at this short period of follow-up time. Why did the authors
decide to follow-up at 2 weeks?
2. Is this the first study to assess the efficacy of Sobrade® in patients with refractory GERD?
If yes, please state in the manuscript.
3. The introduction part was too long. It can be shorted by omit the detail of general GERD
treatment. Please re-consider.
4. There are many sentences that need the reference. For example, “Sobrade® chewable tablet is
a preparation with a solely physical mode of action and classified as a medical device of lowest
risk (Class 1).”, “It prevents the esophageal mucosa from further GERD induced damages by
a bioadhesive coating through xanthan and carbomer whereby the comprised hyaluronic acid
supports the healing process.” and “However, the low risk product characteristic and the absence
of any adverse events,…”, etc. Please re-check through the manuscript.
5. What is the current indication for using Sobrade®?
6. The data of figures and table was redundant and duplicated. For instant, the data of Table 2
was overlapped to the data of Figure 1 and 2. Please choose either 1 table or 2 figures. Moreover,
the bar chart of figure 3 and 4 can be merged and the information was similar to Table 3.
7. Please provide the definition of correlation in the statistical method. What dose the r2: 0.65
mean? Highly correlation?
8. The first paragraph of discussion part was overlapped to introduction part.
9. The discussion and conclusion part were too long. Please consider shorten.
10. Some words need to be written in full eg. Tab. 2, Fig. 2.
assistant