Peptic Ulcer Disease
Surgery
Surgery is rare, but it is needed sometimes to treat:
- Ulcers that don't heal (Reference intractable peptic ulcers).
- Life-threatening Reference complications of an ulcer, such as severe bleeding, perforation, or obstruction.
If surgery is suggested, you may want to:
- Seek a second opinion and ask whether all medicine treatment options have been tried.
- Compare the cost of long-term medicine treatment to the one-time cost of surgery.
- Remember that no surgery can completely prevent ulcers from returning.
- Find a surgeon who has a lot of experience with surgery for ulcers.
Surgery choices
When surgery is done, it usually involves one or more of the following:
- Cutting one or more of the nerves to the stomach (vagotomy).
- Widening the opening of the bottom of the stomach (pyloroplasty).
- Removing part of the stomach (partial gastrectomy).
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