Background: Recent data suggest that profound acid suppression may improve outcomes of patients in peptic ulcer bleeding.
Aim: To better characterize the role of different pharmacological therapies in this population.
Methods: MEDLINE was used to identify randomized trials (01/1990-04/2003) that assessed the efficacy of pharmacological treatments for patients with bleeding peptic ulcers exhibiting high-risk stigmata (Forrest Ia-IIb). Three groups of treatment were assessed: proton-pump inhibitors given as high-dose bolus followed by intravenous constant infusion (40-80 mg and at least 6 mg/h), high-dose oral proton-pump inhibitors (at least twice the standard dosage), non-high-dose proton-pump inhibitors (other proton-pump inhibitors dosing schedules). Mixed-effect models were used to determine rate differences between treatment and control groups.
Results: Eighteen studies (1855 patients) were included. High-dose intravenous proton-pump inhibitors significantly reduced rebleeding (-14.6%), surgery (-5.4%) and mortality (-2.7%) compared with placebo, and rebleeding (-20.6%) compared with H(2)RA. Compared with placebo, high-dose oral proton-pump inhibitors significantly reduced only rebleeding (-11.8%), while non-high-dose proton-pump inhibitor treatment significantly improved all three outcomes.
Conclusions: High-dose intravenous proton-pump inhibitor significantly decreases ulcer rebleeding, surgery and mortality. Early data on high-dose oral proton-pump inhibitor suggest improved rebleeding. The non-high-dose proton-pump inhibitor regimens, including a broad range of dosing, also improved outcomes, suggesting that doses inferior to those in the high-dose intravenous proton-pump inhibitor may be effective.