Prevention and treatment of ulcers induced by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: an update

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are most frequently used for the treatment of rheumatic disease due to their anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. All NSAIDs have the potential to cause damage to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and have been associated with the induction of peptic ulcers and massive life-threatening bleeding. The therapeutic approaches for the treatment and prevention of NSAID-induced ulcers is critically reviewed using data derived from carefully controlled, world-wide clinical studies with anti-ulcer drugs. Histamine (H2) antagonists, omeprazole, sucralfate and E-prostaglandin (PGE) analogs are effective for the treatment of NSAID-induced gastric and duodenal ulcers, if NSAIDs are discontinued. However, if NSAIDs are continued while GI damage is present, the PGE analogs misoprostol, arbaprostil and enprostil have shown efficacy in healing NSAID-induced ulcers. Furthermore, one limited clinical study demonstrated that omeprazole has efficacy in healing NSAID-associated ulcers. Neither H2 antagonists, sucralfate and sulglycotide (a cytoprotective drug) have shown efficacy in preventing NSAID-induced gastric ulcers. However H2 antagonists have shown efficacy in preventing NSAID-induced duodenal ulcers. In contrast, only misoprostol prevents the development of NSAID-induced gastric and duodenal ulcers. Such pharmacological observations suggest that the pathophysiologic mechanisms for the induction of NSAID-induced gastric ulcer are distinctly different from those of NSAID-induced duodenal ulcers. Mild diarrhea and GI intolerance were the predominant adverse reactions experienced by patients receiving synthetic PGEs, particularly enprostil and arbaprostil. From the published data, we conclude that misoprostol is the only anti-ulcer drug proven to be well tolerated and effective for the treatment and prevention of NSAID-induced gastric and duodenal ulcers in patients receiving chronic NSAIDs therapy.