Peptic ulcer disease in early infancy: clinical presentation and roentgenographic features

Abstract

Sixteen infants under 11 weeks of age developed documented peptic ulcer disease involving the stomach, duodenum or pylorus during an eight-year period in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit. The precipitous onset of gastrointestinal bleeding and/or perforation commonly associated with ulcer disease in early infancy was present in only seven (44%) of the 16 patients. The remaining nine infants (56%) presented with recurrent emesis, a presentation of peptic ulcer disease rarely described in the first weeks of life. Contrast radiography was used to demonstrate a definite ulcer crate in 13 of these patients. Two had their ulcers diagnosed at surgery and one by endoscopy. Radiographic demonstration of pylorospasm and/or gastric retention was often associated with ulcer craters located in the pyloric channel or gastric antrum. Only two patients required surgery for massive bleeding and perforation. The remainder were successfully managed medically using orogastric suction antacids and gradual resumption of milk feedings. There were no deaths within our population attributable to peptic ulcer disease.