Antiinflammatory drugs and emergency surgery for peptic ulcers in the Waikato.

OBJECTIVE

to examine the use of antiinflammatory drugs in patients undergoing emergency surgery for bleeding and perforated peptic ulcers in the Waikato.

METHODS

a retrospective case control study of all patients who had emergency surgery for bleeding and perforated peptic ulcers at the Waikato Hospital from March 1987 to March 1991.

RESULTS

seventy-seven patients underwent emergency surgery for complicated peptic ulcers over the study period. Forty-six (60%) of these patients were taking antiinflammatory agents at the time of admission to hospital. In an age and sex matched group of patients undergoing nonulcer emergency surgery over the same period 18 of 77 patients (23%) were using antiinflammatory drugs (p less than 0.001). There was no difference in the postoperative morbidity or mortality between the antiinflammatory drug takers and the nondrug takers following emergency ulcer surgery.

CONCLUSIONS

the findings confirm the high level of use of antiinflammatory drugs by patients who require emergency surgery for life threatening complications of peptic ulcers. Patients taking aspirin, nonaspirin nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NNSAIDs) and oral steroids form a major part of the workload in the emergency surgical treatment of bleeding and perforated peptic ulcers.