Helicobacter Forums

Hi everybody

Live in USA, from the last 5 years I have been suffering excess of gas in my stomach, last year become worst, every thing that I eat produce me "to break wind", water, grapes,anything that i eat.
On January the doctor diagnostic that i have Helicobacter Pylori, then gave me Metronidazol 500 mg (2 tablets daily) Amoxicillin 500 mg (4 tablets daily) and Omeprazole 20mg for 7 days.
On February repeat the test and bacteria is still present, now send me Clarithromycin 500 mg (2 tablets daily) Amoxicillin 500 mg (4 tablets daily) and Omeprazole 20mg for 7 days.

After that, nothing happens and told me that take Prevpac, that is a good treament for this, before send me to a gastroenterologist, but this medicine is very expensive in USA, and I would like to know what do you think about that, if is it a good idea or take again the second treament but for 14 days that was the other option that the doctor told me.
The endoscopy is more expensive that a prevpac, then, no easy to choose, any help ???

(My English is not good,thanks)

hi, have you done a breath test after your 2nd treatment?

yes, i had a second test also and still was positive.

It is expensive to do, but the next line of treatment (PPI - AMOX - CIPRO - RIFABUTIN) is listed in the article which appears on the bottom of my signature link. Cure rate about at least 80% - after that it is really tough and you should start saving up for a visit to an expert in Hp treatment.

Thanks, finally I am taking Prevpac for 14 days, that is 4 capsules every 12 hours, 1 prevacid 30mg, 1 biaxin 500mg and 2 amozicillin 500 mg, when i finish and come back to doctor, let all know about that.
Thanks a lot.

Hi，I am as same as you. Two fails of treatment. I searched "Prevpac" on the NET, it is basically as same as your second treatment. I choose a third line therapy on helico.com. PPI standard dose bd/bismuth subcitrate 120 mg qid/furazolidone 200 mg bd/tetracycline 500 mg qid. And I plan to take my medicines from tomorrow. When I finish I will let all know about the end. Here's good luck to you!

The same to you, thanks

barjammar wrote:It is expensive to do, but the next line of treatment (PPI - AMOX - CIPRO - RIFABUTIN) is listed in the article which appears on the bottom of my signature link. Cure rate about at least 80% - after that it is really tough and you should start saving up for a visit to an expert in Hp treatment.

Hmm, how about using levofloxacin instead of ciprofloxacin, would that have any advantages? Side-effect wise which one is worse levo or cipro?

For example, there is a review on the use of levofloxacin for eradication of H. Pylori: _http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.02737.x/pdf

However, some researchers questioned the efficiency of levofloxacin-based rescue therapy, so there was a heated debate going on, unfortunately as I'm not a doctor I don't understand their arguments so I can't have an opinion on this:

1.) _http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.02857.x/pdf
2.) _http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.02866.x/pdf

Well, I haven't read those papers thoroughly yet, as I just happened to find them. I'm myself on a third-liner, doctors can't really help me as 2 years have passed and I'm more or less still convincing them that it ain't about stress n' coffee. So I'm trying to find a suitable third line treatment myself by using Internet. Based upon the information from the links above, I am now considering the levofloxacin alternative, that is: levofloxacin (500 mg two times a day), amoxicillin (1 g two times a day), and omeprazole (20 mg or more 2 times a day) for 10 days and maybe pray . However, I have doubts about the efficiency of amoxicillin as I pointed out in the thread I just started: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=201606 Why? Well, I don't know if the presence of beta-lactamase inhibitor is essential to the efficiency of amoxicillin pills or not. Maybe I should avoid amoxicillin compleatly and use bismuth instead.

EDIT: There is evidence that bismuth does not impair the bioavailability of ciprofloxacin _http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC284708/ while it does so on for example tetracycline-like drugs: _http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/247/16/2266.abstract so maybe one should use the traditional bismuth triple therapy but replace tetracycline with levofloxacin? Which has more H. Pylori resistance cipro/levo or tetra/doxy?

I also noticed that eating raw, fresh garlic helps with the symptoms, try it if you want, it might help you! By the way, does anyone know if eating 2-3 cloves of garlic everyday for years is a dangerous practice?

Note: I had to use _ before a link otherwise I couldn't make the post...

As I know, eating 2-3 cloves of garlic everyday for years is safe for you. Many people in China used to eat raw garlic everyday and nothing bad happened to them.

Finally third treatment worked for me, feel ok without problems.