Continued Aspirin After Gastric Bleeding—Weighing the Risks and Benefits

The usual protocol for treating a patient who develops peptic ulcer bleeding while receiving antiplatelet therapy for prevention or treatment of cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease is to use an endoscopic device to stop the bleeding, offer antisecretory therapy (such as a histamine [H2]-receptor antagonist or a proton pump inhibitor [PP1]), and discontinue the antiplatelet agent until the ulcer heals. Stopping the antiplatelet agent, however, may put the patient at greater risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications. To help determine whether aspirin therapy can be continued safely immediately following endoscopic treatment of peptic ulcer bleeding, researchers from the Institue of Digestive Disease, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong conducted a parallel, randomized, placebo-controlled noninferiority trial.