 For secondary endpoint measures, statistical tests for medians were based on a Wilcoxon sign rank test of the percent improvement in a given study measure. This was based on the paired patient data of the pre-treatment scores versus the 6-month scores. The issue of multiple statistical tests of hypothesis being performed on data arising from individual patients was addressed in the following way. The comparison of GERD-HRQL scores was taken as the main results for which no correction of significance level was necessary. To recognize multiple testing using the method of Bonferroni, statistical significance was claimed for the secondary results only if, for a single test, the nominal p-value was .01. Given that some patients, during the course of the clinical study, were lost to follow-up, all outcomes were examined using the method of last visit carried forward, provided that at least one follow-up visit had been completed. It should be noted that using this method had little impact on the results; as compared to an analysis of the data of just those patients who completed follow-up, excluding those who missed the visit or were lost to follow up. However, this method was employed to account for those patients who were lost to follow-up, with specific consideration to those who had been lost to follow-up due to unsatisfactory treatment effect. Means and standard deviations are reported using the mean SD format, medians and interquartile ranges are reported using the median IQR format. 