Peptic Ulcer Disease

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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