Ulcers – Complications

Transcript

One of the most common complications of peptic ulcer disease is bleeding. You know, when the ulcer gets deep enough to where it erodes into a vessel such as a vein or more likely an artery, you get a subsequent very severe bleed, which needs endoscopic treatment. And what I mean by that is a doctor needs to take a camera and go down into the stomach and find the area that’s bleeding and then we’re able to treat it in multiple different ways by injecting medication, or putting clips, or burning the area. One of the most severe complications of ulcer disease is what we call a perforation. If that ulcer gets too deep and it causes a burrowing hole into the tissue, then you get bile acids and stomach content going into the abdominal cavity, and at that point, that becomes a surgical emergency.