Duration of adhesion of swallowed alginates to distal oesophageal mucosa: implications for topical therapy of oesophageal diseases.

Sodium alginate solution adhered to the oesophageal mucosa for significantly longer than placebo or viscous slurry. This demonstrates that alginates could confer a protective benefit due to mucoadhesion and can be a basis for further development of topical protectants and for topical drug delivery in oesophageal disease.