[Treatment of complicated peptic ulcer: personal experience]

BACKGROUND The availability of drugs which can effectively inhibit gastric secretion allowed the control of the peptic disease in almost all the patients, but the incidence of complications is substantially unchanged. METHODS In the present study, we performed a retrospective evaluation of 153 patients treated for complicated peptic ulcer (hemorrhage and perforation) in the last 6 years. Hemor-rhage is a common onset of the peptic disease and it rarely requires a surgical treatment, because medical and endoscopic therapies are successful in a high number of patients. RESULTS Surgery was necessary in 17.2% of the cases in the group of patients studied. CONCLUSIONS Our experience confirms the high operative mortality in the patients who underwent surgery for hemorrhage related to complicated peptic ulcer because of the frequent presence of several risk factors. Surgical therapy is the main procedure of treatment of perforated peptic ulcer and in the group of patient examined all the cases of perforation underwent surgical operation. In conclusion, despite the progress of pharmacological and endoscopic therapies, surgical treatment is the best therapy of complicated peptic ulcer.