Published 15 September 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1454
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1454

Clinical Review

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection

¹ Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University of Bologna, 40138, Bologna, Italy, ² Department of Economics, University of South Florida, FL 33620, USA

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The prevalence of H pylori varies widely and is about 50% in international population studies Triple and quadruple multidrug regimens are standard treatment Resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole and lack of adherence to treatment are the main predictors of treatment failure The choice of the most effective regimen should be based on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, especially resistance to clarithromycin and metronidazole Individualised treatment based on antimicrobial susceptibility has a limited role in H pylori eradication strategies The overall risk of reinfection is estimated at 3.4% per patient year in developed countries, rising to 8.7% in developing countries

Helicobacter pylori is one of the most common human infections, and about half of the world’s population carries this organism. Since its discovery in 1984, H pylori has been recognised as a major cause of several upper gastrointestinal diseases.^{1 2} As with other chronic infectious diseases, several antibiotics must be given simultaneously . . . [Full text of this article]

Standard treatments
Third line treatment

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