Low-Dose Aspirin and Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs Increase the Risk of Bleeding in Patients with Gastroduodenal Ulcer.

BACKGROUND

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), low-dose aspirin (LDA), non-aspirin antiplatelet medications (APs), and anticoagulant medications (ACs) increase the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

AIM

To examine whether NSAIDs, LDA, APs, and ACs use is associated with bleeding from gastroduodenal ulcers.

METHODS

This was a case-control study of patients with endoscopically verified gastroduodenal ulcer diagnosed at our institution from 2004 to 2011. Among 1,611 patients, we identified those who required endoscopic hemostasis for bleeding ulcers as cases. Age-matched, sex-matched, and Helicobacter pylori status-matched patients who did not require therapeutic interventions served as controls. Use of NSAIDs, LDA, APs, and ACs within 2 weeks prior to the endoscopy was compared between cases and controls, and effects on ulcer bleeding were calculated.

RESULTS

We recruited 341 cases and 668 controls. The site and number of ulcers were not different between groups. Multivariate analyses revealed that LDA and NSAIDs, individually, were associated with the increase in the risk of bleeding (OR 1.80 and 95 % CI 1.18-2.75 for LDA; 1.35 and 1.01-1.80 for NSAIDs). In addition, a combination of LDA and NSAIDs or LDA and APs contributed more profoundly to the bleeding (OR 3.59 and 95 % CI 1.19-10.81 for LDA/NSAIDs; OR 6.70 and 95 % CI 1.83-24.50 for LDA/APs). However, ACs, alone or in combination, were not associated with bleeding ulcers.

CONCLUSIONS

Both LDA and NSAIDs are risk factors for upper GI bleeding in patients with gastroduodenal ulcer, while ACs are unrelated to the increased risk. The risk of bleeding with LDA may increase with simultaneous use of APs.