Abstract:The incidence of back pain in patients with peptic ulcers in relation to the location of the ulceration was investigated. One hundred and seventeen patients with gastric ulcers and 35 patients with duodenal ulcers consecutively seen over the past five years were the subjects in this study. The location of the ulceration was assessed by endoscopy in all cases.Forty‐eight out of 117 (41.0%) and 11 out of 35 (31.4%) patients with gastric and duodenal ulcers respectively complained of back pain with or without other symptoms. Further, there were 7 patients with gastric ulcers and 1 with duodenal ulcers who had only back pain or had back pain with other symptoms other than epigastric pain.There were no significant differences between the location of ulceration and the symptoms i. e., epigastric and back pain.Back pain in this study is considered to be a referred pain via visceral afferent pathways, and it may occur more commonly than has been earlier documented.It should be taken into consideration also that some patients with peptic ulcers complain of back pain as their main symptom. (Dig Endosc 1944; 6 : 17