When you hear words such as erosive gastritis and stomach ulcers, what picture flashes in your mind?
Presumably, everyone will immediately think of a fleshy, rotten stomach, and even through imagination, they have already felt the pain.
But in fact, the so-called erosive gastritis, gastric ulcer, does not mean that your stomach rots, but the gastric mucosa is affected by various factors, there is erosive damage, it is mainly divided into acute and chronic two categories in the clinic!
The so-called acute erosive gastritis, refers to the gastric mucosa multiple erosions as the main feature of acute gastritis, it is also clinically known as acute gastric mucosal lesions, erosion hemorrhagic gastritis, the cause of the disease and vital organ failure, critical diseases (large-scale burns, intracranial lesions, shock), severe stress state and other factors.
Chronic erosive gastritis, also known in the clinic as warty gastritis, acne rash gastritis, compared with the former, the causes of chronic erosive gastritis are more complex.
In addition to the acute factors mentioned above, long-term use of certain drugs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid hormones, certain antibiotics), long-term heavy alcoholism, etc., may cause damage to the gastric mucosal barrier, increased mucosal permeability, and eventually develop gastric mucosal erosion and bleeding.
It should be emphasized that chronic erosive gastritis does not mean that the stomach disease has developed to a serious and irreparable point, so patients do not need to worry too much. However, we can't let down our guard, if erosive gastritis is not actively treated, the following two hazards may also find themselves:
1. Atrophic gastritis
If chronic erosive gastritis is present, but the patient is not actively treated, the surface of the gastric mucosa will be repeatedly damaged in the case of continuous development, and the glands inherent in the mucosal surface will gradually atrophy, or even disappear, and then develop chronic atrophic gastritis.
Patients will not only have stomach discomfort, gastrointestinal symptoms, but also the disease will continue to develop, there will be intestinal metaplasia, atypical hyperplasia, a small number of atrophic gastritis and even can develop cancerous;
2. Gastric bleeding
If the patient develops acute erosive gastritis, there is a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. Relevant research and investigation show that the disease is an important cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, accounting for about 20% of all patients.
At the onset of the disease, in addition to epigastric pain, patients will also have intermittent gastrointestinal bleeding, and the symptoms are manifested by black tarry stools, and in the case of large bleeding, the patient may suddenly vomit blood. A small proportion of patients may also develop acute heavy bleeding, or even develop hemorrhagic shock;
3. Gastric perforation
The continued development of erosive gastritis may lead to damage to the function of the antrum, dysfunction of the pyloric closure, which in turn can aggravate the progression of the disease and even cause gastric ulcers.
Once a gastric ulcer develops, patients may induce gastric perforation due to the ulcer. Relevant research surveys have shown that the incidence of ulcer perforation is about 5-10% of all ulcer patients.
Finally, I would like to remind everyone that although erosive gastritis is not as scary as you imagine, and even less difficult to treat than gastric ulcers, we still do not ignore it, because behind erosive gastritis, there are more serious problems hidden.
Therefore, after the diagnosis of erosive gastritis, whether acute or chronic, it should be actively cooperated with the doctor for treatment.