Introduction. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are the most commonly used medicines in medical practice. As literary sources show, they often cause unwanted side-effects. The purpose of our work was to evaluate the frequency, clinical manifestations and morphological features of lesions of the gastroduodenal zone that arise in patients of rheumatologic, neurological profiles and angiosurgery department during the course of treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs of different groups, to trace the dependence of the frequency of manifestations of the pathology of the stomach and duodenum from simultaneous receiving two nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and their combination with glucocorticosteroids and anticoagulants.
Material and methods. 73 patients who had used NSAIDs for a long time and had endoscopically confirmed medicated gastroduodenopathy. Patients were divided into 3 groups depending on the profile of the department: Group I included - 24 patients of the department of vascular surgery; Group II - 23 patients of the neurological department; Group III - 26 patients with rheumatological profile.
Results. Asymptomatic clinical picture of NSAID-gastropathy was found, which did not coincide with the available endoscopic changes in the gastroduodenal tube: in 63% of cases, erosive changes in the mucous membrane were present, and stomach and duodenal ulcers were revealed in 11%. It was also found that in the group of patients receiving proton pump inhibitors, the incidence of gastroduodenopathy was reliably lower (34.2%) than in patients who did not receive them (53.4%). During this study, it was found that the use of selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can significantly reduce the probability of developing the pathology of the gastroduodenal zone, compared with non-selective.
Conclusions. The course of treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be as short as possible and should be carried out with minimal but effective doses. Parallel prophylactic administration of proton pump inhibitors is appropriate in patients at high risk of developing erosions and ulcers in the background of treatment with these drugs.
Response to letter to the editor: ‘are proton pump inhibitors suitable medicines to prevent upper gastrointestinal events due to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs?'
