[The problems of etiology and pathogenesis of ulcer disease: rereading V. Kh. Vasilenko].

The author discusses the views of V. Kh. Vasilenko on etiology and pathogenesis of ulcer disease expounded in his last publications and compares them with modern concepts of the origin of this condition. The nature of ulcer disease as a systemic gastrointestinal pathology is considered with special emphasis on its difference from secondary (symptomatic) ulceration, pathogenetic significance of H. pylori infection, hereditary and environmental (non-infectious) factors. Much attention is given to the conditions facilitating the development of ulcer diseases at different combinations of internal and environmental factors including such poorly known ones as immune and sanogenetic mechanisms.