[Ranitidine and cimetidine in long-term (2 years) maintenance therapy of chronic gastric ulcer]

Sixty patients with chronic gastric ulcer (UGC) received randomly cimetidine (CMT) or ranitidine (RNT) for 2 years, at a dose of 400 mg/night CMT or 150 mg/night RNT, in a prospective, controlled, simple blind clinical trial of these medications and endoscopy findings. The objective was to evaluate the brute rate of symptomatic recurrences during maintenance therapy and the rate of asymptomatic ulcers up to the end of this period of treatment. Of the 60 patients with healed chronic gastric ulcer who began the trial, 12 abandoned treatment (20%), six in each group. In the group treated with CMT (n = 24) there were 10 symptomatic recurrences (41.6%), and in the group treated with RNT (n = 24), four symptomatic recurrences (16.6%). Differences, although near statistical significance, were not mathematically significant. The rate of endoscopic ulcers at the end two 2 years of maintenance treatment was 45.4% and 42.8%, respectively. There were no important secondary effects that obliged suspension of the medication. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study are that maintenance treatment with CMT and RNT reduce recurrences and complications, with a favorable therapeutic tendency for RNT; the majority of symptomatic recurrences appeared in the first year of therapy; the percentage of asymptomatic ulcers at the end of this therapy was reduced by almost 20%; and there were no statistically significant differences between CMT and RNT.