Clinical Symptoms of the Gastric Ulcers in the Aged

Abstract

As the result of the 400 cases of gastric ulcer in the aged (above 60 y.o.), endoscopically diagnosed at our clinic in the recent 8 years, the following was concluded. 1) Gastric ulcer in the aged in the active and the healing stage. a) The frequency of epigastralgia was 49.6%, which was lower than that of the middle aged (61.1%) and the younger aged (74.2%). Hematemesis and melena was 15.6%, higher than that of the middle aged (9.2%) and the younger aged (7.6%). Cases without complaints were 26.2%. b) The frequency of epigastric pain in the group above 70 y.o. was 40.8%, lower than that in the 60s (52.9%). However, the frequency of hematemesis and melena of the cases above 70 y.o. was 19.7%, which was higher compared to that in the 60s (14.1%). c) The cases with strong or medium epigastric pain was only 8.2%, whereas in the middle aged it was 12.2%, and in the younger aged 21.1%. d) The frequency of epigastric pain was 58.6% in the cases with gastric ulcer in the middle or lower corpus, and 52.7% in the cases with ulcer in the gastric angle. On the contrary, in the cases with gastric ulcer in the upper corpus, the rate was 33.3%. Hematemesis and melena was observed in the following rates: in the upper corpus 20.0%; in the antrum 8.3%; in the gastric angle 3.6%. e) The frequency of epigastric pain of large ulcers was 66.7%, medium scaled ulcers 58.8%, small ulcers 38.8%. On the contrary, hematemesis and melena of large ulcers was 20.4%, medium scaled ulcers 13.4%, small ulcers 5.8%. f) Hematemesis and melena of gastric ulcers in the aged was observed often in the winter season, with the frequency of 29.6%. 2) Gastric ulcers in the aged in the scarring stage also had various subjective symptoms; the frequency of epigastric pain was found to be 18.2%, and cases without complaints was 59.1%.