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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Simultaneous Laryngopharyngeal and Conventional Esophageal pH Monitoring
Published on: December 14, 2020
Ranitidine is unable to maintain gastric pH levels above 4 in septic patients
Cristina B Terzi Coelho1, Desanka Dragosavac, João S Coelho Neto
1Intensive Care Unit, Teaching Hospital of the State University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. cristerzi@gmail.com
Purpose:
The study aimed to evaluate whether ranitidine and pantoprazole are able to maintain gastric pH >or=4 in septic patients.
Materials And Methods:
Twenty intensive care unit patients from a university teaching hospital with sepsis were included in this study. Ten patients received ranitidine (50 mg as an intermittent bolus 3 times a day) and 10 received pantoprazole (40 mg as an intermittent bolus twice a day). Gastric pH was measured continuously for 48 hours. Endoscopy of the upper digestive tract, gastric biopsy, and investigation for Helicobacter pylori were carried out before and at the end of the study.
Results:
pH values >or=4 were maintained for 46.27% +/- 38.21% and 81.57% +/- 19.65% of study time in the ranitidine and pantoprazole groups, respectively (P = .04).
Conclusions:
Intravenous ranitidine was unable to maintain gastric pH above 4 in septic patients. All cases in the ranitidine group in whom pH remained above 4 had gastric hypotrophy or atrophy. Pantoprazole successfully maintained pH levels above 4.
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