<human>: My father in law just had surgery to replace a heart valve as well as bypass surgery. He has several perforating bleeding gastric ulcers that had to be closed via surgery. He was given many pints of blood to replace what he lost through the ulcers. The doctors said the ulcers were caused by the leaky heart valve. He is 90 years old and had been in good health until a month ago. What is the connection between the heart valve and the ulcers?
<bot>: Hi Dear Xxx.! Thank you for posting you question here. Yes as the treating doctor said it's a good connection between heart problems and peptic ulcer especially in elders. I would explain why:In the patient with heart problem such value disease and coronary disease (bypass ) the heart sometimes don't pomp enough blood in the body so the organs cells will suffer from the lack of oxygen. One of these is the stomach. Normal the stomach mucosa keep in balance the acid in the stomach and protect against bacterial infection with some mechanism and one of them is the mucosal blood food. In this way the stomach mucosa (the superficial part of the stomach) will not allow the acid and bacteria (H. Pylori) to penetrate deeper and to cause ulcer. In case of this patient the mucosal blood flow is low and will have peptic ulcer. The perforation and bleeding are complication of the peptic ulcer. Wish these help you to understand. If you have any other question please feel free to ask me.