Pain in duodenal ulcers would be aggravated by hunger and relieved by a meal and is associated with night pain.Also, the symptoms of peptic ulcers may vary with the location of the ulcer and the persons age. Furthermore, typical ulcers tend to heal and recur, and as a result the pain may occur for few days and weeks and then wane or disappear. Usually, children and the elderly do not develop any symptoms unless complications have arisen. A burning or gnawing feeling in the stomach area lasting between 30 minutes and 3 hours commonly accompanies ulcers. This pain can be misinterpreted as hunger, indigestion, or heartburn. Pain is usually caused by the ulcer, but it may be aggravated by the stomach acid when it comes into contact with the ulcerated area. The pain caused by peptic ulcers can be felt anywhere from the navel up to the sternum, it may last from few minutes to several hours, and it may be worse when the stomach is empty. Also, sometimes the pain may flare at night, and it can commonly be temporarily relieved by eating foods that buffer stomach acid or by taking anti-acid medication. However, peptic ulcer disease symptoms may be different for everyone. Complications
Gastrointestinal bleeding is the most common complication. Sudden large bleeding can be life-threatening. It is associated with 5% to 10% death rate. Perforation (a hole in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract) following a gastric ulcer often leads to catastrophic consequences if left untreated.
Other conditions that produce similar symptoms include stomach cancer, coronary heart disease, and inflammation of the stomach lining or gallbladder inflammation.Diet does not play an important role in either causing or preventing ulcers. Treatment includes stopping smoking, stopping use of NSAIDs, stopping alcohol, and taking medications to decrease stomach acid. The medication used to decrease acid is usually either a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) or an H2 blocker, with four weeks of treatment initially recommended. Ulcers due to H. pylori are treated with a combination of medications, such as amoxicillin, clarithromycin, and a PPI. Antibiotic resistance is increasing and thus treatment may not always be effective. Bleeding ulcers may be treated by endoscopy, with open surgery typically only used in cases in which it is not successful.Peptic ulcers are present in around 4% of the population. New ulcers were found in around 87.4 million people worldwide during 2015. About 10% of people develop a peptic ulcer at some point in their life. Peptic ulcers resulted in 267,500 deaths in 2015, down from 327,000 in 1990. The first description of a perforated peptic ulcer was in 1670, in Princess Henrietta of England. H. pylori was first identified as causing peptic ulcers by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren in the late 20th century, a discovery for which they received the Nobel Prize in 2005. Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms of a peptic ulcer can include one or more of the following:
abdominal pain, classically epigastric, strongly correlated with mealtimes.