A perforated ulcer develops more often in men, especially after 40 years. The causes of this extremely dangerous ulcer complication are:
- stressful situations
- heavy physical exertion,
- serious nutritional errors,
- seasonal exacerbations,
- the use of tobacco products,
- alcohol intake,
- trauma when probing the stomach.
Against the background of prolonged use of hormones, with frequent heartburn in the patient's history, a perforated stomach ulcer may develop. Patients have complaints of increased pain in the abdomen, increasing weakness. But perforation can occur suddenly. In this case, you must immediately contact a medical institution, since this condition is deadly.
At the initial stage, a sharp pain appears, as after a knife strike. With a stomach ulcer in patients, pain appears in the left side or near the navel, with a duodenal ulcer 12 - in the right hypochondrium. Pain can be given to the right shoulder, to the collarbone, under the right shoulder blade. But after a few hours there is no clear distinction between pain. The patient is disturbed by dizziness, severe weakness, nausea. The skin is pale in color, covered with a sticky cold sweat. The tongue is dry, with a touch. The patient lies on his side, the abdominal muscles tighten. He presses his knees to his stomach and tries to lie still. Because with the slightest movement, the pain intensifies, and this can reflexively cause vomiting. Abdominal muscle tension is noted. Laboratory blood counts are normal.
At the second stage, the perforated ulcer is characterized by imaginary well-being and improvement of the patient’s well-being. The pain becomes dull, pressure, pulse and temperature normalize. But this external improvement indicates a catastrophic internal change: acute pain subsides because atrophy of nerve endings occurs and after 8-12 hours from the onset of the disease, peritonitis with high fever, tachycardia develops, followed by a decrease in heart rate and a drop in blood pressure.
In the third stage, the pain is diffuse, worrying throughout the stomach. Blood and stomach contents enter the abdominal cavity and irritate the peritoneum. Intoxication is increasing in the body, which provokes frequent vomiting, debilitating the patient.
The abdomen is swollen, intestinal motility is not heard. The radiograph shows the accumulation of liquid and air under the diaphragm in the form of a sickle. With percussion, a dull sound over the area of the liver disappears. The tympanic sound above the intestinal region in the abdomen passes into the pulmonary sound above the chest region in the right half of the human body.
A perforated gastric ulcer, the symptoms of which everyone needs to know in order to properly react and call an ambulance in a timely manner, is considered one of the most dangerous complications of peptic ulcer. If there is a suspicion that the patient has a perforated gastric ulcer, you must immediately seek medical help. You cannot count on an imaginary improvement, since you can miss the moment and then the disease will take a serious turn, which can end tragically.
A perforated ulcer is treated only by surgery in an inpatient setting. During the operation, a stomach tissue is taken for biopsy to exclude a cancerous tumor. If a person cannot be delivered to a medical institution for several reasons (a person is in the mountains, in a forest where there is no transport or in bad weather), atropine should be administered subcutaneously to reduce the formation of gastric juice and to suck out the contents of the stomach through a probe inserted into the nasal passage. But this is a forced temporary measure.
A perforated ulcer after surgery requires long-term inpatient treatment, a strict diet, and rehabilitation measures. The first 10 days, the patient needs bed rest, daytime sleep and rest. A few months after surgery, you must adhere to a special diet, avoid some foods and drinks.