Histological changes in the gastric mucosa of chronic gastric ulcer patients treated with carbenoxolone.

Serial direct vision gastric mucosal biopsies were obtained in 25 patients with a chronic lesser curve gastric ulcer. Morphological changes were assessed ;blind' in 15 patients who received carbenoxolone and in 10 untreated patients. Chronic gastritis was initially observed ;proximal' and ;distal' to the ulcer in 24 of the 25 patients. The mucosal changes were shown to persist in subsequent biopsies and appeared to be uninfluenced by therapy with carbenoxolone even when the ulcer had healed.