Etiology
We constantly hear the term of a stress ulcer. When we hear stress ulcer, we are talking about physiologic stress, not psychological. Ulcers are physiologic, and almost all patients that go in the ICU will develop stress ulcers because of all the corticosteroids being released. So just about every patient in the ICU will be given prophylactic drugs that prevent stress ulcers. Alcoholism also causes them as well. Then there’s also the idiopathic ulcers, which mean we have no idea why they’re happening and these people will be on life long prophylactic therapy. Certain drugs such as NSAIDs, aspirins, corticosteroids cause ulcers too. The overgrowth of Heliobacter pylori can also cause ulcers.
- Stress (physiologic not psychologic)
- alcoholism
- idiopathic
- drug induced
- bacteria induced (Helicobacter pylori)
Drug Therapy
We’ve talked about antibiotics before so we’re going to go over the other options below.