Preventing Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients withHelicobacter pyloriInfection

Abstract

To the Editor: Chan et al. (March 29 issue)¹ sought to determine whether eradication of Helicobacter pylori is “equivalent to maintenance treatment with omeprazole” in the secondary prevention of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients taking low-dose aspirin or other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Unfortunately, their data do not make clear in how many of the patients with recurrent bleeding the attempted eradication of H. pylori was successful. The authors report an eradication rate of 91 to 93 percent among those who completed the study. This leaves a substantial number of patients who remained positive for H. pylori. What percentage of . . .