The efficacy of bismuth quadruple therapy, sequential therapy, and hybrid therapy as a first-line regimen for Helicobacter pylori infection compared with standard triple therapy.

Abstract

To compare the effectiveness of first-line Helicobacter pylori eradication treatments as standard triple therapy (sTT), bismuth-containing quadruple therapy (BQT), sequential therapy (ST), and hybrid therapy (HT). 303 patients treated between July 2018 and June 2021 were studied. In this study, 76 patients in the sTT group, 78 patients in the BQT group, 75 patients in the ST group, and 74 patients in the HT group were randomly allocated. The diagnosis of H. pylori was made endoscopically. H. pylori stool antigen test was performed 4 weeks after finishing the treatment. The mean age was 48.53 (13.48) in sTT, 49.04 (13.02) in BQT, 48.47 (14.54) in ST, and 47.45 (13.4) in HT. There was no significant age difference among the groups (P = 0.909). H. pylori eradication rate in intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was 68.4% in sTT, 79.5% in BQT, 78.7% in ST, and 83.8% in HT. There was no significant difference between sTT, BQT, and ST regarding of eradication rate. The difference between HT and sTT was significant (P = 0.028). In the per-protocol (PP) analysis, the eradication rate was 74.3% in sTT, 88.6% in BQT, 86.8% in ST, and 92.5% in HT. There was a significant difference between sTT and BQT (P = 0.030) and sTT and HT (P = 0.004), whereas there was borderline significant difference between sTT and ST (P = 0.065). In terms of eradication, HT had the best rate, whereas the lowest rate was in the sTT treatment group. This study does not recommend using sTT because of the low eradication rates. This study recommends HT for overcoming antibiotic resistance and better results.