It is well known that duodenal ulcer disease does not relapse if H. pylori is cleared from the gastric mucosa. Little is known about the recurrence of duodenal ulcer in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the eradication of H. pylori in duodenal ulcer in children upon the duodenal ulcer recurrence.

105 patients (M : F=78 : 27) diagnosed as duodenal ulcer by endoscopy in 1987~1995 were reviewed clinically, and were parted into two groups. The two treatment groups were ranitidine/antacid (RAN/ANT) and ranitidine/amoxicillin/denol (RAN/AMX/D). The latter was for H. pylori-positive children with duodenal ulcer who were diagnosed by serology and/or antral biopsies for histology, culture, and urease testing. The recurrence rates were compared between the two groups.

1) 30 patients with primary duodenal ulcer underwent endoscopy for H. pylori and 27 (90.0%) of them were positive for H. pylori. 2) 27 of H. pylori-positive children received RAN/AMX/D. 23(85.2%) of them showed cure of duodenal ulcer and eradication of H. pylori. 3) The duodenal ulcer recurrence rate in RAN/ANT group was 65.3% and the rate in RAN/AMX/D was 4.3% by a year.

There is a strong correlation between the duodenal ulceration and H. pylori infection in children, and the eradication of H. pylori in duodenal ulcer patients reduces the recurrence of the ulcer. Because of the low incidence of duodenal ulcers in children, a multicenter prospective study is required to determine the effect of treating H. pylori infetion on the long term natural history of duodenal ulcer disease.