Complications of Peptic Ulcer Disease

There are four major complications of peptic ulcer disease (PUD): bleeding, perforation, penetration, and obstruction. Complications can occur in patients with peptic ulcer of any etiology. Despite improvements in the medical management and the lower overall incidence of PUD, there are conflicting data about the incidence of potentially life-threatening ulcer complications. There are important time trends embedded within this stable overall rate of complications: the dramatic decline in the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (comparing the cohort born from 1900 to 1920 to cohorts born after 1940); an increased use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and an increased rate of ulcer complications related to such drug use, especially in the elderly. As a result of these trends, ulcer complications are on the rise in older patients but on the decline in younger individuals. Hemorrhage is the most frequent PUD complication and its incidence is increasing in comparison to perforation and stenosis. Therapeutic endoscopy is considered the treatment of choice for bleeding ulcers, reducing the need for emergent surgical procedures to 10–20% of the cases. In recent years, besides the success of angiographic embolization, the containment of massive hemorrhage must also be taken into account. Transcatheter arterial embolization is also an effective and safe treatment in patients with duodenal ulcers re-bleeding after therapeutic endoscopy or surgery.