Background: Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy can be unsuccessful in 5 to 20% of patients.
Aim: To investigate the validity of a strategy using triple therapies for the retreatment of patients with eradication failure, avoiding retreatment with antibiotics prone to induce resistance after use in the first treatment.
Patients and methods: From a consecutive sampling of 108 patients still Helicobacter pylori-positive after a first course of antibiotic-based treatment, 74 (68.5%) agreed to a second course of triple therapy. Group 1 (N = 17): treatment failures on an imidazole (1)-based therapy were retreated with clarithromycin (C)-based regimen; Group 2 (N = 28): failures on a C-based therapy with an I-based regimen; Group 3 (N = 7): failures on an IC-based therapy using an I-based regimen and Group 4 (N = 22): failures on a non-I/non-C based therapy with either an I-based, C-based or IC-based regimen. The presence of Helicobacter pylori was assessed by histology and the CLO-test at study entry and two months after stopping therapy.
Results: Nine patients were withdrawn from the study (12.2%) due to a lack of end point endoscopy. Helicobacter pylori was cured after the second course of therapy in all but seven patients [10.7% failure by Per Protocol analysis, 21.6% by Intention-To-Treat analysis]. No statistically significant differences were found between the four groups (Group 1: 92.9% PP, 76.5% ITT; Group 2: 90.9% PP, 71.4% ITT; Group 3: PP and ITT 85.7%; Group 4: PP and ITT 86.4%). Minor adverse events were experienced in nine, none of whom required withdrawal from the drug therapy.
Conclusions: A second course of triple therapy with alternate antibiotics effectively eradicated Helicobacter pylori, with only very few treatment failures. This suggests that the therapeutic strategy employed may be recommended.