CLINICAL STUDIES ON SURGICAL TREATMENT AND PROGNOSIS OF PEPTIC ULCER IN OLD AGE

Abstract

In the past 15 years, 101 cases of peptic ulcer in patients over 60 years of age were treated in our department. Of 101 patients, 76 had gastric ulcer, 16 had duodenal ulcer and 9 had combined gastric and duodenal ulcer. The number of peptic ulcers treated surgically has been decreasing recently, while the percentage of peptic ulcers in the aged has been increasing. Of these 101 cases, 52.4% of the patients had no past history of ulcer, and 49.3% had suffered from the disease for less than six months. In regard to symptoms, 71.3% of patients complained of abdominal pain, and 36.6% showed gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The indications for laparotomy were hemorrhage, perforation and stenosis in 48.6% and intractability in 47.2%. The rate of preoperative complications and the rate of emergency operations tended to increase with age. Although there was a complete absence of mortality in the patients without preoperative complications, that among patients with preoperative complications in emergency operations was a high 46.2%. How to avoid emergency operations in the aged remains a problem to be solved in the future.