Short- and long-term outcomes of surgical management of peptic ulcer complications in the era of proton pump inhibitors

We evaluated the short-term and long-term outcomes of emergency operations for peptic ulcer (PUD) complications in a period of time in which the need for surgery is infrequent.

Retrospective review of operated patients (2007–2015) in one medical center.

81 patients were included (8.9 patients/year): 70 (86.4%) male; 11 (13.6%) female. Indications for operation were hemorrhage in 18 (22.2%), perforation in 62 (76.5%) and gastric-outlet obstruction in one (1.2%). Only 16 (19.8%) operations included a procedure to reduce gastric acid secretion. Six (7.4%) patients had a second operation for recurrent or persistent complication. Of these, two had a procedure to reduce gastric acid secretion in their first operation. 16 (19.8%) patients died during the index hospitalization. Three (3.7%) patients were rehospitalized for a PUD complication following 3–24 months. One patient, who had surgery for a second perforation 3 months following the first operation, was treated empirically for Helicobacter Pylori (HP) between the two operations. In comparison to perforation, patients with hemorrhage were older (69.9 ± 20.3 vs. 52.1 ± 19.9 years; p = 0.0015), more commonly had a history of PUD or treatment by nonsteroidal anti-inflammotry drugs (55.6 vs. 19.4%; p = 0.0054), more commonly had a procedure to reduce gastric acid secretion during their index operation (61.1 vs. 6.5%; p < 0.0001), and had a higher mortality (38.9 vs. 14.5%; p = 0.0406).

Mortality is high following surgery for the complications of PUD, moreso in patients undergoing surgery for hemorrhage. Reoperations and repeated hospitalizations for complications are not uncommon, even in patients who have had procedures to reduce gastric acid secretion and HP eradication.