Oral and intravenous eradication of Helicobacter pylori

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of oral regimens in patients without active gastric bleeding and those of intravenous regimens in a group with active gastric bleeding. This study was performed as an interventional investigation in Tehran between April 2004 and March 2008. The patients who had active peptic ulcer were included and divided into two groups. One group included 26 subjects with active gastric bleeding and the other included 29 patients without active gastric bleeding. The intravenous treatment included metronidazole, ampicillin, ranitidine and orally administered bismuth for five days. The oral regimen included metronidazole, amoxicillin, ranitidine and bismuth sub-citrate for 14 days. In intravenous group 24 patients (92.3%) and in oral group 24 subjects (82.8%) had no drug adverse events. The successful treatment was seen in 61.5% (16/26) and 55.2% (16/29) in intravenous and oral methods, respectively. Finally, it may be concluded that both five-day intravenous therapeutic regimen in patients with active gastric bleeding and 14-day oral regimen in patients without active gastric bleeding would have good efficacy and low rate of drug adverse events.