Cure of duodenal ulcer after eradication of Helicobacter pylori

Eighty-two patients, whose duodenal ulcers were recurrent or resistant to H2-receptor antagonist therapy, were entered in a treatment protocol of ranitidine followed by a four-week "triple therapy" course to eradicate Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection. The triple therapy consisted of colloidal bismuth subcitrate, tetracycline and metronidazole. Duodenal ulcer healed in all 78 patients available for endoscopy and H. pylori infection was shown to be eliminated in 75 patients (96%) at rebiopsy four weeks after cessation of therapy. In these 75 remaining patients the relapse rates for H. pylori infection and duodenal ulcer were studied endoscopically, yearly and at any recurrence of symptoms. At Year 1, 71 of 73 patients remained free of H. pylori infection (HP-negative) and duodenal ulcer. The corresponding figures subsequently were: Year 2, 57/57; Year 3, 34/34; Year 4, 15/15. No duodenal ulcers recurred in HP-negative patients who were followed for up to four years. Two patients of the original cohort of 75 HP-negative patients were HP-positive with endoscopic duodenitis at 12 months, and one at 36 months, but all were without reulceration. Distorted duodenal caps gradually returned to near-normal appearance in 80% of patients by two years. From this four-year follow-up study we conclude that duodenal ulcer disease will not recur provided the patient remains free of H. pylori.