Should Treatment of Helicobacter pylori in Children Change? - Abstract
Purpose: We aimed to evaluate complaints, laboratory findings, treatment response based on age group and density of HP and follow up outcomes of patients who were detected to have Helicobacter pylori (HP).
Patients and methods: Patients who underwent endoscopy from June 2013 to June 2014 and detected to be HP (+) were included in this study.
Results: The study included 107 cases. Mean age was 10.5 ± 4.84 years (median: 9.5 years). Most frequent presenting complaint was abdominal pain (68.2%). In histopathological examination, 57.9% of cases had mild, 31.7% had moderate and 10.3% had severe active chronic gastritis. Severity of HP positivity was mild in 33.6%, moderate in 35.5% and severe in 30.8% of cases. Administered treatment was 14 day classical therapy in 57.9%, quadruple therapy in 31.8% and tetradox protocol in 10.3% of cases. 60.7% of cases were found responsive at the end of the treatment. Regarding the patients who showed response to treatment, 40% received classical therapy, 43.1% received quadruple therapy and 16.9% received tetradox protocol. After treatment 17 of the patients treated with classical therapy and 7 of the patients treated with triple therapy were found to be HP positive, and none of the patients treated with tetradox protocol was positive for HP. There was significant difference in terms of eradication rate after treatment (p<0.001).
Conclusion: H.pylori in childhood age is most frequently observed in cases having abdominal pain complaint. We believe it is most appropriate to evaluate the patient for HP density and the severity of gastritis during planning of the treatment.