Treatment of geriatric peptic ulcer with chymotrypsin and an antibiotic.

Abstract

AbstractIn man, the healing of a benign, non‐endocrine peptic ulcer of the stomach or duodenum is basically a process of regeneration dependent upon freedom from exposure to the digestive enzymes, unneutralized acid and infection. Under these conditions the peptic ulcer heals within ten days.Our method involved the use of chymotrypsin—an enzyme inhibitor of gastric hydrochloric acid, the substrate for conversion of pepsinogen to pepsin—together with an antibiotic. Healing was obtained in 92 per cent of roentgenologically proven peptic ulcers in 146 geriatric patients, within ten days after starting treatment.Evaluation of most methods of peptic ulcer therapy is open to criticism because of lack of controls. In this study each patient served as his own control, since during a nine‐year period, other methods of treatment had failed.