Effect of Ursodeoxycolicacid in Treatment of Bile Gastritis

Background: Bile gastritis (gastropathy) is a kind of gastritis which is caused by reflux of bile contents through duodenum on stomach. It can occur spontaneously without any former gastric surgeries which affect sphincter of pylorus. The positive impact of some certain drugs such as prokinetic agents e.g. metoclopramide, Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), cholestyramine and sucralfate in treating bile gastritis has been confirmed. This study has been conducted in order to analyze the effect of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which is a harmless drug, on patients with the bile gastritis. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, all patients with dyspepsia who were qualified to undertake endoscopy were enrolled and then 60 patients with bile gastritis were selected for the study. The patients were divided into two groups; a group was treated by UDCA, omeprazole and sucralfate and another one was treated with placebo, omeprazole and sucralfate for two weeks. Finally, at the end of the third week of treatment patients were examined. Results: A total of sixty 19-70 year-old patients (Mean: 46 years old) included in this study. At the end of the study, there was not found any meaningful difference between the two groups in terms of pain intensity, heartburn intensity, severity of bloating, vomiting and early satiety; however, each group independently showed improvement of the mentioned indices after termination of the treatment (p=0.0005). Conclusion: Adding UDCA to the standard treatment (sucralfate) is not clinically effective in curing the bile gastritis.