Hundreds of thousands of people become victims of peptic ulcer every year. Recently, in our city and region, cases of a complicated course of this disease have become more frequent. This disease is widespread and occurs the more often, the higher the level of economic development of the region. What are the risks associated with this disease? What are the risks of people suffering from gastric and duodenal ulcers? In this article, discussing the problem of the fatal complications of ulcers, I would like to give a kind of advice from the opposite so that the seriousness of the problem becomes obvious. So, what is life-threatening this suffering, what are the fatal complications.

Bleeding

Peptic ulcer (or simply ulcer) of the stomach and duodenum is one of the most common causes of internal bleeding in the organs of the digestive system. The ulcer itself is a constantly deepening wound in the wall of the stomach or intestines, therefore, when the ulcer grows, it is quite possible that it will reach the vessel feeding the stomach tissue and "corrode" its walls. It must be said that the blood supply to the stomach is intense, and the vascular network of this organ is very rich, therefore, if untreated, peptic ulcer disease is very often complicated by internal bleeding.

Most often, bleeding from an ulcer occurs suddenly, for no apparent reason. However, if someone wants to speed up the onset of this event, then when diagnosed with a stomach ulcer, he needs to get up in the morning and not having breakfast, smoke a few cigarettes and drinking strong coffee, go to work where it is necessary to get nervous several times. Rest assured, the result will not be long in coming!

The symptoms of internal bleeding are as follows: sudden onset of a feeling of weakness, dizziness, cold sweat, drowsiness, fear, and increased heart rate. When enough blood has accumulated in the stomach, the patient can vomit. Due to interaction with hydrochloric acid, the blood changes color from bright red to dark brown ("vomit of coffee grounds").

In some cases, bleeding develops slowly and the patient, without knowing it, manages to swallow and digest a fair amount of his own blood. In such a case, he should notice that his stools have turned black as tar - this is another sign of bleeding in the stomach or intestines.

The most dangerous are the so-called profuse bleeding (from large vessels), in which the patient can lose several liters of blood in 15-20 minutes. Such bleeding is the most serious threat to life!

Perforated ulcer

Perforation of an ulcer is a frequent complication of a rapidly developing peptic ulcer. If patients with bleeding from an ulcer are constrained by "strange drowsiness" and numbness, then patients with ulcer perforation (even the most persistent) at one point "bend over from pain."

What is ulcer perforation? Imagine a stomach - in fact, it is a hollow sac filled with some food and acidic gastric juice. When an ulcer perforates between the stomach cavity and the abdominal cavity in which it is located, a direct message is formed, that is, the ulcer deepens so much that it pierces the stomach wall through and through. At the same time, gastric juice flows out of the stomach, which greatly irritates the peritoneum - this causes unbearable pain.

This complication of peptic ulcer disease also develops suddenly. But perforation with bleeding may also occur.

Symptoms of a perforated stomach ulcer are as follows: the patient suddenly bends over from an attack of severe pain in the upper abdomen or in the navel. The abdominal muscles are tense, forming the so-called wooden belly. When the ulcer perforates, the pain gradually moves to the iliac region ("under the pit").

 You need to know that the suffering of the patient with the perforation of the ulcer does not end there. Without medical assistance, he will die only a few days later from peritonitis (purulent inflammation of the abdominal cavity).

Penetration

Penetration is one of the frequent complications of peptic ulcer disease, in which the ulcerative process leads to the soldering of the stomach walls with one of the neighboring organs (for example, the intestine or pancreas) and the gradual penetration of the ulcer into this organ.

Penetration is much less dangerous than perforation, since with it the ulcer still remains closed, and massive infection of the abdominal cavity with microbes (peritonitis) does not occur. However, penetration can be deadly. The most dangerous is penetration into the pancreas.

This organ is extremely sensitive to all kinds of injuries and therefore, when an ulcer hits it in a matter of hours, acute pancreatitis can develop, which in itself is much more dangerous than any of the complications of peptic ulcer disease. The chances of penetration are greater in chronic patients with peptic ulcer, who, although they undertake treatment, do not complete it, but perforation is more often observed in young people with a short history of the disease.

Gatekeeper stenosis

The gatekeeper is the end of the stomach, which connects it to the duodenum. In the area of ​​the pylorus, ulcers form especially often, since it is this part of the stomach that is most suitable for the life of Helicobacter (a bacterium that provokes the formation of an ulcer) and it is here that the acidity of gastric juice is maximum. Anatomically, the pylorus is a narrow canal equipped with muscle rings that can contract and relax. With muscle contraction, the pyloric canal closes and the stomach cavity is separated from the intestinal cavity. When the muscles of the pylorus are relaxed, the canal expands and part of the food from the stomach passes into the duodenum for further digestion. Pyloric stenosis is characterized by its irreversible narrowing and deformation against the background of a chronic ulcer that struck this part of the stomach. Actually,

The first symptoms of pyloric stenosis may appear many years after the onset of peptic ulcer disease. The disease begins with a feeling of fullness in the stomach after eating, heaviness and pain in the stomach, sour belching with an unpleasant odor. Also, patients complain that after a long time after eating, they hear “splashing liquid” in the stomach and feel the stomach is full.

A characteristic symptom of pyloric stenosis is vomiting, which in the later stages of the disease, when the ulcer almost completely blocks the passage from the stomach to the intestines, occurs every time after eating, and greatly alleviates the suffering of patients, but dooms them to death from exhaustion.

Indeed, patients with pyloric stenosis die from exhaustion, since sooner or later the communication between the stomach and intestines is completely disrupted due to the proliferation of connective tissue in the area of ​​the old ulcer.

Treatments for pyloric stenosis can only be surgical. Usually, during the operation, the affected part of the stomach is removed, and the healthy part of the organ is sutured to the small intestine to restore the message.