CHRONIC PEPTIC ULCER IN CHILDREN

Abstract

A thorough study of available reports emphasizes the infrequency of chronic peptic ulcer in children. Up to twenty years ago it was considered a rarity, but within the last few years it has been encountered more often. Too often, however, this condition remains unrecognized clinically. Ulcers in childhood are overlooked because digestive upsets are not given the careful attention they merit. It is therefore of the utmost importance to bear this possibility in mind in order that the mortality associated with profuse hemorrhage, pyloric obstruction and perforation with peritonitis may be avoided. This study does not include cases of melena neonatorum, in some of which acute ulcers are found. Sturtevant and Shapiro¹found only five cases of gastric ulcer in children in 7,219 necropsies. From 1906 to 1925, in 8,260 (6,664 duodenal and 1,596 gastric) peptic ulcers at the Mayo Clinic, Proctor²discovered only two in children, one