Seasonal Incidence and Precipitating Causes of Hemorrhage From Peptic Ulcer

Abstract

After all the years that physicians and surgeons have been contending with the dilemma of peptic ulcer, one would think that by now

The seasonal incidence of bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract

“…Previous analyses of the seasonal incidence of gastric ulcer haemorrhage taken alone have been inadequate due to small numbers of cases, and only two investigations, both in the U.S.A. (Boles and Westerman, 1954;Breen and Grace, 1962), have been made of duodenal ulcer bleeding. This paper therefore presents the results of an inquiry into the seasonal incidence of admissions of patients for bleeding gastric and duodenal ulcers to two large general hospitals in London: some figures are also given for the variation in admissions of cases of radiologically negative bleeding to one of them.…”

Seasonal Incidence of Perforation and Severe Bleeding of Peptic Ulcer

“…Papers have investigated the pain [1,2,7,9], the bleeding [3,6] or the perforation [4], however, according to our study, the prevalence of perfo rations and severe bleedings occurred in different sea sons.…”

“…Periodicity of peptic ulcers has been studied since the first description by Moynihan in 1910 [1,2], One of the hypotheses to explain the phasic worsening of ulcers was the seasonal variations of the weather [ 1,[3][4][5].…”

“…The influence of the weather on human health, mainly related to the digestive system, has been described since Hypocrates [3][4][5]. In 1944, Bockus mentioned the effect of the seasons on the periodicity of ulcers [4].…”

“…In 1944, Bockus mentioned the effect of the seasons on the periodicity of ulcers [4]. Other authors ascribed the periods immediately before cold weather [3,4] or to any change of the weather [1,4,5] a pivotal role in complications of peptic ulcers. However, several papers do not agree with these observations [2,6,7], According to them, the periodicity of ulcers is not related to any season or weather.…”