The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7270 p484
11 October 2003

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Archives of Internal Medicine abstract (more)

Therapy can stop after H pylori eradicated

For patients with bleeding peptic ulcers that have healed following successful Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy, maintenance anti-ulcer treatment is not necessary to prevent ulcer recurrence, say Taiwanese researchers.

After H pylori eradication had been achieved (using a one-week proton pump inhibitor-based triple therapy plus three weeks of omeprazole), 82 patients were randomised to receive one of four maintenance anti-ulcer treatments (antacid suspension, colloidal bismuth subcitrate, famotidine or placebo). During the 56-month follow-up no evidence of ulcer relapse or bleeding recurrence was found in any patient.

“Successful eradication of H pylori drastically changes the natural history of bleeding peptic ulcers,” they say (Archives of Internal Medicine 2003;163:2020).