Is gastric erosion serious?

Gastric disease mainly refers to the lesions of gastrointestinal function. There are many types of gastric disease clinically, and most people have a very broad definition of gastric disease. Gastric erosion is also a common type of gastric disease. Gastric erosion can be said to be a type of ulcer and can be diagnosed clinically through gastroscopy. The early symptoms of gastric erosion are not obvious, so most people tend to confuse gastric erosion with other stomach diseases before examination. Patients must pay attention to gastric erosion, which has a great impact on human health and may induce many complications. The severity of gastric erosion is also related to treatment and care.

1. Pathology

In fact, gastric erosion refers to shallow ulcers limited to the gastric mucosa. It is a gastroscopy diagnostic term. Because its depth does not exceed the muscularis mucosa, some people consider it to be the early stage or pre-stage of gastric ulcer. But it should be noted that not all gastric erosions develop into gastric ulcers. Since fiber gastroscopy has been widely used in clinical practice, gastric erosion has been found to be one of the common causes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, with an incidence rate only lower than that of ulcer disease. At present, upper gastrointestinal bleeding caused by gastric erosion is generally called acute erosive gastritis. Some people also call it hemorrhagic gastritis or acute gastric mucosal lesions. Sometimes the duodenal mucosa may also become eroded and cause bleeding.

2. Severe gastric erosion

If gastric erosion is not treated in time, it can be quite serious. Most patients are often asymptomatic or have varying degrees of indigestion symptoms such as upper abdominal pain, acid reflux, fullness after meals, loss of appetite, etc. Patients with atrophic gastritis may have anemia, diarrhea, glossitis and emaciation. Some patients with mucosal erosion have obvious upper abdominal pain and may have bleeding. Therefore, patients are reminded that once symptoms of gastrointestinal disease appear, they must seek treatment as soon as possible.

3. Note

You should eat more nutritious and easily digestible foods. It is usually advisable to eat food that is nutritious, contains little residue, is easy to chew and digest. If the ulcer is severe or there is a small amount of gastric bleeding, a liquid diet should be adopted, such as milk, batter, rice porridge, etc. Eat less or no fried food, and avoid eating raw, cold, hard or overheated food. Fried or deep-fried foods or raw, cold, hard, or overheated foods are not only difficult to digest, but also promote excessive secretion of gastric acid, directly damaging the ulcer surface. In addition, food that is too hot can cause blood vessels to dilate and easily cause gastric bleeding. However, irritating foods such as chili peppers, curry, excessive salt, soy sauce, spices, candy, coffee, strong tea, cigarettes, etc. can irritate ulcers and gastric mucosa and increase the acidity of gastric juice, so they should be avoided as much as possible.