Options in the treatment and prevention of NSAID-induced gastroduodenal mucosal damage

Aspirin and other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) have been associated with various degrees of gastroduodenal damage. The agents currently available for the treatment of gastric mucosal damage caused by NSAID are histamine2-receptor antagonists, antacids, sucralfate and prostaglandins. Although all of these agents are effective in healing gastric and duodenal injury if NSAID are discontinued, currently available data suggest that there may be significant differences among these drugs in healing gastric mucosal injury if NSAID are continued in the presence of such injury. In particular, the synthetic prostaglandin misoprostol appears to be therapeutically superior to agents in the other drug classes in such a context. Reviewed herein are data from the literature on both treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal damage due to NSAIDs.