Clinical significance and outcome of gastric mucosal erosions: a long-term follow-up study.

Our purpose was to evaluate the long-term clinical significance of gastric erosions. A series of 117 patients with gastric erosions without peptic ulcer disease, and matched controls were studied in 1974–1979. All available subjects were reinvestigated 17 years later, including detailed clinical history and laboratory analysis. At follow-up, erosions were still more prevalent (39%; 20/50) in the erosion group than in the controls (11; 7/66). In Helicobacter pylori–positive participants, peptic ulcer or a scar was more common in the erosion group (17%; 9/52) than in controls (5%; 3/66). Overall malignancy rate was higher in controls (15%; 17/117) than in erosion group (5%; 6/117; P = .025), but no other differences were seen between the groups or related with current erosion. We conclude that a significant proportion of gastric erosions are chronic or recurrent but mostly without serious complications. However, H. pylori–positive patients with erosions have significant risk to develop a peptic ulcer.