Stress and ulceration: medico-legal aspects.

This paper outlines the possibility of acute, and perhaps, fatal, if not diagnosed, stress ulcers precipitated by trauma, surgery, or other potentiating events. It should once again be emphasized that prevention is the best treatment for the stress-induced ulcer, and that this prevention may occur at both a secondary level (defusion of emotive or physical precipitators) and a primary level (reduction of gastric acid and/or bleeding).