Poor outcome and quality of life in female patients undergoing secondary surgery for recurrent peptic ulcer disease.

Secondary peptic ulcer surgery is uncommon given the success of a wide variety of medical therapies, plus the good outcome expected after primary peptic ulcer surgery. Early reports of secondary peptic ulcer surgery in the 1950s and 1960s suggested good long-term outcome in most patients; however, recent data suggest that patients operated in the Helicobacter pylori era have a worse outcome. We have attempted to quantify the poor outcome in these patients and measure the effect of sex, a previously unrecognized risk factor for poor outcome after peptic ulcer surgery. We reviewed the outcomes of 35 patients who underwent secondary peptic ulcer surgery for symptoms of persistent or recurrent peptic ulcer symptoms or complications of the condition. These patients were compared to a "control" group of patients to determine long-term quality of life as measured by the SF-36 and Visick scores (average follow-up 60 months). Visick and SF-36 scores were obtained through telephone interviews. The two groups of patients were age matched to eliminate age as a variable in the SF-36 results. There were more females than males in the secondary peptic ulcer surgery group (4.5/1 female-to-male ratio). Although perioperative mortality was zero for both groups, patients undergoing secondary peptic ulcer surgery had a high number of complications (57% of patients had complications). Patients undergoing secondary peptic ulcer surgery scored lower in seven of the eight subclasses of the SF-36 questionnaire compared to their age-matched cohorts. In contrast, average Visick scores showed slight improvement for three out of four symptoms reported. Immediate postoperative complications were not related to long-term quality of life issues. Secondary peptic ulcer surgery is more prevalent in females than in males. Although secondary peptic ulcer surgery is partially effective in alleviating symptoms, quality of life is poor.