Does emerging Clarithromycin resistance signal an obituary to empirical standard triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori infection?

Despite 30 years of its discovery, the ideal therapeutic regimen against Helicobacter pylori is still evasive. Clarithromycin-based standard triple therapy which has been considered the first line empirical therapy has been failing in many parts of the world, due to rising resistance against Clarithromycin, forcing the use of alternate regimens. In this context, we studied the local antibiotic resistance patterns against H. pylori and its impact on standard triple therapy in our region. All patients undergoing diagnostic upper endoscopy during the study period and detected to be positive for rapid urease test (RUT) underwent cultures of gastric mucosal specimens and had their antibiotic resistance patterns mapped out. Standard triple therapy was administered to those tested positive for H. pylori by RUT and eradication rates checked by urea breath test 4 weeks after the completion of treatment. Eradication rates with Clarithromycin-based standard triple therapy were suboptimal with a success of only (71.28 %). H. pylori culture and antibiotic susceptibility studies showed high resistance to Clarithromycin (21.2 %), Metronidazole (78.1 %), and Levofloxacin (15 %). However, the resistance to Amoxicillin (2.9 %), Tetracycline (0 %), and Rifabutin (4.5 %) were low. Standard triple therapy is failing in our region due to high Clarithromycin resistance. We need to abandon empirical and blind triple therapy without post-treatment testing and devise alternate effective treatment strategies against H. pylori based on the local resistance patterns observed.