Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and adverse gastrointestinal effects. An unresolved problem

Abstract

Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs are a class of medicine widely used throughout the world. This is a pharmacological group in continuous growth, to which some new molecules have been added in recent years. The great drawback of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs are their adverse effects, outstanding of which due to their frequency and importance being those that occur in the gastrointestinal tract. By means of a search in Medline and other databases, this work reviews the latest data published on the incidence of dyspepsia, gastroduodenal lesions, gastrointestinal complications and mortality associated with consumption of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. Similarly, a brief description is made of the mechanism of lesions to the stomach of the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and the different risk factors that condition the appearance of adverse effects at the gastrointestinal level. Finally, an analysis is made of the preventive strategy and the different medicines that can be used to this end and a contrast is made of the evidence extracted from the different published studies and the reality of the use of the different "gastroprotectors". This review concludes with a series of questions that still remain unresolved concerning treatment with non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and their lesions to the stomach.