Childhood peptic ulcer

The incidence of peptic ulcer in childhood is lower than that in adults, and can be divided into 4 different types. (1) Infant type: Infant type ulcer is an acute ulcer that occurs in newborns and infants under two years of age. The cause is unknown. In the neonatal period, duodenal ulcers are more common than gastric ulcers. This ulcer either heals quickly, or perforates or bleeds quickly to death. In infants from the neonatal period to less than two years of age, there is no significant difference between the performance of ulcers and those of neonates, which are mainly manifested by bleeding, obstruction or perforation. (2) Subtype: The occurrence of this type of ulcer is related to some serious systemic diseases, such as sepsis, central nervous system disease, severe burns, and the application of corticosteroids. It can also occur after congenital pyloric stenosis, liver disease, and heart surgery. This type of ulcer occurs on the stomach and duodenum with equal frequency, and can be seen in children of any age and gender. (3) Chronic type: This type of ulcer mainly occurs in school-age children. With age, the performance of ulcers is more similar to that of adults. But in young children, the pain is more diffuse, mostly around the umbilicus, and has nothing to do with eating. Vomiting often occurs, which may be due to the small duodenum, which is prone to obstruction due to edema and spasm. It is only in adolescents that they exhibit typical rhythmic pain limited to the upper abdomen. There are more duodenal ulcers than gastric ulcers, and more boys than girls. The onset of this type of ulcer is the same as that for adults. (4) Ulcers complicated by endocrine adenoma: This type of ulcer occurs in gastrinoma and multiple endocrine adenoma disease type I, namely Wermer syndrome.

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