Peptic Ulcer Disease

Surgery is rarely needed to treat peptic ulcers. Very effective medicine treatments are available to help heal ulcers. Treatment of a Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection prevents most ulcers from coming back.

Surgery is needed occasionally to treat:

• Ulcers that do not heal (intractable peptic ulcers) after extensive medicine therapy and self-care.
• Life-threatening complications of an ulcer, such as severe bleeding, perforation, or obstruction.

Surgery Choices

When surgery is done to treat an ulcer, it usually involves one or more of the following:

• Cutting one or more of the nerves to the stomach (vagotomy).
• Widening the opening of the bottom of the stomach (pyloroplasty).
• Removing part of the stomach (partial gastrectomy).

What To Think About

Because medicine for peptic ulcers works so well, surgery is rarely needed. If surgery is suggested, you may want to:

• Seek a second opinion and ask whether all medicine treatment options have been tried.
• Compare the cost of long-term medicine treatment to the one-time cost of surgery.
• Remember that no surgery can completely prevent ulcers from returning.
• Find a surgeon who has a lot of experience with this type of surgery.

Surgery may be needed for ulcers that are not healing because you are taking aspirin or NSAIDs. If you continue taking these medicines, surgery may not work well. Not taking these medicines is very important. Talk to your doctor about medicines you can take instead of aspirin or NSAIDs.