Is superficial atrophic gastritis serious?

When many people hear that they have superficial atrophic gastritis, they feel that this disease is incurable and worry that they will get stomach cancer again. In fact, this disease is mainly divided into two types. You should know that gastric cancer does not occur in a day or two. It requires long-term accumulation to develop this disease. Is superficial atrophic gastritis serious? The answer is given below.

1. Most patients with superficial gastritis lack clinical symptoms. Some patients often have upper abdominal distension, belching, acid reflux, loss of appetite, or irregular upper abdominal pain, which worsens after eating. Superficial gastritis can usually be cured with treatment; if left untreated, it can progress further, with the intrinsic glands reduced due to inflammation and may turn into atrophic gastritis.

2. The cause of chronic atrophic gastritis is relatively complicated. It usually develops from chronic superficial gastritis and then transforms into gastric cancer through intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia. Only a small number of people will eventually go down this path. Don’t worry too much just because you are diagnosed with atrophic gastritis. Although the two are related, it does not mean that you will definitely get gastric cancer if you have atrophic gastritis.

3. Atrophic gastritis has many clinical symptoms, the main ones being loss of appetite, nausea, belching, upper abdominal fullness or dull pain. A small number of patients may experience upper gastrointestinal bleeding, weight loss, anemia, etc. The diagnosis mainly relies on endoscopic findings, gastric mucosal biopsy and pathological findings. Regular endoscopic and biopsy pathological examinations can detect the precancerous state of cancer. The most important ones are moderate to severe dysplasia, and even early cancer can be detected.

4. In order to prevent atrophic gastritis from becoming cancerous, the causative factors should be eliminated first. Avoid eating various foods and medicines that are highly irritating to the gastric mucosa, such as high-concentration alcohol and strong tea, overly hot food, and long-term use of drugs such as salicylic acid. Quit smoking and drinking when necessary. Although tobacco and alcohol will not directly irritate the gastric mucosa, they will indirectly weaken the protective factors of the gastric mucosa.