Causes of death in patients with gastric ulcers

Of 701 patients with gastric ulcers admitted to hospital within the period 1955-64, 180 died within a five-year period calculated from the time of admission. Causes of death were established at autopsy in 66%, and otherwise were derived from death certificates. The mortality in our series is grouped after the sex and age of the patients, and the causes of death are compared with the corresponding sex and age groups of the Copenhagen population. Mortality was significantly higher than expected in both men and women, particularly high in the first year after actual admission, but falling thereafter to about the same level as the expected mortality. Gastric ulcer itself was the most usual cause of death, but other disease was also significant. Thus mortality from suicide was significantly higher than expected in women. That there is a relationship between operation and suicide seems unlikely--all concerned had psychiatric histories. In men, pulmonary disease involved a significantly higher mortality than expected, and some connection between ulcer disease and pulmonary disease seems possible. If patients dying from cancer of the stomach within a two-year period are excluded, mortality from this disease was not significantly higher than expected. Thus the study gives no support to that theory that benign gastric ulcers are prone to malignant degeneration.