Peptic ulcer before 60

• April 24, 2024

Peptic ulcer (rupture of the mucosa that covers the digestive tube ) is a common disease, present in 20% of the population over 50 years of age. It develops by exposure to hydrochloric acid and pepsin, and although its cause is multifactorial, it is associated with a high consumption of medicines , particularly non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, used in the treatment of degenerative joint problems, osteoporosis and other chronic diseases, such as rheumatology.

It is important to understand the dynamics of this condition for a correct prevention . It is usually located in the stomach and duodenum (initial part of the small intestine), and is also related to the bacterium helicobacter pylori, as well as the habit of smoking and alcohol intake and stress.

Prevention

Specialists of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, recommend avoiding self-medication, not combining aggressive drugs to the gastric mucosa, modify dietary habits (decrease the intake of irritants: fats, spicy, condiments, chocolates and soft drinks among others), strict hygiene at prepare food and decrease or suspend tobacco and alcohol.

For those who need to consume anti-inflammatories for a long time, they should be evaluated by the doctor to prescribe the medicines along with the adequate protector to the digestive tract, in order to avoid the development of the ulcer and its complications.

Symptoms of peptic ulcer

Dr. Claudia Martínez Camacho, gastroenterologist and endoscopist attached to the Endoscopy Service of the Regional General Hospital No. 1 "Dr. Carlos MacGregor Sánchez Navarro "of the IMSS, explained that in the clinical picture of peptic ulcer, the patient reported abdominal pain, burning, throbbing or colic, with predominance in the mouth of the stomach (epigastrium), with a feeling of hunger or emptiness, and it can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

Symptoms occur 1 to 4 hours after consuming abundant foods or ingestion of medications or may occur at dawn, when it is gastric ulcer. In the case of duodenal ulcer occurs in periods of fasting and pain or discomfort improves when eating food (dairy) or medical treatment.

Figures in our country

According to statistics, peptic ulcer is present in 50% of all cases of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage; the mortality of the patients who present it can be of the 10 to 20%, since they arrive at urgencies with blood pressure below normal and difficulty to breathe, when the ulcer is complicated with perforation and peritonitis, the mortality is latent.

80% of patients with peptic ulcer hemorrhage are controllable, 20% will require urgent endoscopic treatment to stop bleeding, and a similar percentage will require surgical treatment.

Treatment

The treatment of first choice is with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), although other medical alternatives are H2 blockers (ranitidine), in addition to a group of antacids that help resolve symptoms.

If it is diagnosed that the cause of the peptic ulcer is helicobacter pylori, the antibiotics required for the eradication of the bacteria are available.

In Mexico, Social Security provides endoscopy studies for the diagnosis of peptic ulcer and all therapeutic endoscopy procedures such as injecting, thermal coagulation (bipolar, multiple polar or argon plasma) and endoclips for the urgent management of peptic ulcer complicated by Hemorrhage and perforated ulcer is supported by the surgeon for surgical treatment.

There are patients considered high risk for the development of peptic ulcer, which are: carriers of heart disease, rheumatology and other chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure, which due to the same disease and its complications require the intake of multiple medicines.

Video Medicine: Stomach Ulcers: Natural Remedies That Work (April 2024).