Peptic ulcer in infancy and childhood with a review of the literature.

The occurrence of peptic ulcer in infancy was described ox-er a hundred years ago by Cruveilhier (1829-35) in his Anatomie Pathologique du Corps Humain . He records the presence of multiple gastric ulcers in three infants at the respective ages of one, two, and four weeks. The lesions are clearly illustrated by drawings. Since then reports on peptic ulcers in children have appeared in ever-increasing numbers in the literature (chiefly continental and American), Theile (1919a) having collected 248 cases under the age of sixteen, while Bird, Limper and Mayer (quoted Ladd and Gross, 1941) review 243 cases up to the age of fifteen. In this country, however, according to Paterson, only three British cases were published prior to 1922. In view of this dearth a series of such cases is here reported in order to draw attention to the condition. since the first essential for the diagnosis of peptic ulceration in childhood is recognition of the fact that it actually does occur, even in the neonatal period. Theile, who saw it from the first day of life onwards, considers that it almost always arises after birth, and this is confirmed by Ballantyne (1902) in his ' Textbook of Antenatal Pathology'. Some authors, however, believe that the lesion may be present at birth. According to Ladd and Gross it has been described in stillborn infants. It is well known that acute peptic ulcers can develop very quickly, having been seen as early as nineteen hours after a severe burn (Hurst and Stewart, 1929).