Surgery for peptic ulcer today - A study on the incidence, methods and mortality in surgery for peptic ulcer in Finland between 1987 and 1999

Background: During the past 20 years medical therapy of peptic ulcer disease (PUD) has dramatically improved. Simultaneously there has been a significant improvement in living and dietary habits. Quite presumably, all these significant events are reflected in the incidence and results of surgery for peptic ulcerations. Aim: To study the incidence, methods and mortality of surgery for PUD. Methods: The nationwide data between 1987 and 1999 were obtained from the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health. In the analysis the codes of the ICD 9 - 10 were used. Results: The annual incidence of elective surgery for PUD decreased from 15.7 to 1.7 operations ( per 105 inhabitants, mean of 2 consecutive years) between 1987 and 1999 ( p <0.05). Simultaneously, the annual incidence of emergency surgery increased from 5.2 to 7.0 operations ( per 105 inhabitants, p <0.05). In 1987, local procedures (duodeno-/gastrorrhaphy or duodeno-/gastrostomy and suture) were applied in 25% of operations for PUD, whereas in 1999 they were 90% of the methods in PUD surgery. The overall annual mortality from PUD surgery remained 8% between 1987 and 1999. Conclusions: Elective ulcer surgery has virtually disappeared and parietal cell vagotomy has become history, whereas the incidence of emergency surgery increased significantly between 1987 and 2000, with the exception of the most recent years. Local procedures are overwhelmingly applied in emergency surgery and more extensive surgery is unnecessary. Nevertheless, the overall surgical mortality remained 8% between 1987 and 1999. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel.