Omeprazole maintenance therapy prevents recurrent ulcer bleeding after surgery for duodenal ulcer.

AIM: To evaluate the omeprazole maintenance therapy in patients with recurrent ulcer bleeding after surgery for duodenal ulcer.

METHODS

We studied 15 consecutive patients with recurrent ulcer bleeding after surgery for duodenal ulcer. Omeprazole (20 mg/d) maintenance therapy was given after ulcer healing. In addition to clinical follow-up, ambulatory 24-h gastric pH assay was performed before and during omeprazole therapy in those patients and controls with previous duodenal ulcer surgery but no ulcer recurrence.

RESULTS

All the 15 ulcers were healed after being treated with omeprazole (40 mg/d) for 2 mo. Eleven patients with two (1-9) episodes of recurrent ulcer bleeding completed the follow-up (43, 12-72 mo). None of them had a bleeding episode while on omeprazole. One patient discontinued the therapy and had recurrent bleeding. The median 24-h fraction time of gastric pH<4 in patients was 80, 46-95%, and was reduced to 32, 13-70% by omeprazole (P=0.002).

CONCLUSION

Long-term maintenance therapy with omeprazole (20 mg/day) is effective in preventing recurrent ulcer bleeding.