Peptic ulcer complications and how to treat them

The main complications to peptic ulcer are perforation, stenosis and bleeding. Diagnosis and treatment are discussed with special reference to the principles of 1st Department, Kommunehospitalet, Copenhagen. The three main complications to peptic ulcer disease include perforation, stenosis and bleeding. The etiology to peptic ulcer disease and the pathogenesis of ulcer disease complications are still poorly understood, although an imbalance between mucosa-protecting and -destructing factors seems to be of major importance. However, the introduction of neither H2 receptor antagonists nor the so-called mucosaprotection agents during the seventies and eighties significantly have reduced the frequency of peptic ulcer disease or the frequency of its complications (perforation 10 per cent, stenosis 10 per cent and bleeding 20 per cent of patients with peptic ulcer disease. The unchanged frequency of operation for peptic ulcer complications was confirmed in a recent study by A. Christensen et al. 1987. Their data suggested unchanged frequency of operations for ulcer complications prior to and following the introduction of H2 receptor antagonists (Fig. I and II) in a well defined population in Copenhagen.