Healing of gastric ulcer in the elderly: a double-blind study of cetraxate versus ranitidine

Forty-nine Chinese patients, ages 65 years or over, with endoscopically and pathologically diagnosed benign gastric ulcer, completed a randomized double-blind double dummy trial in treatment with either cetraxate 200 mg four times daily or ranitidine 150 mg two times daily for 12 weeks or less if the gastric ulcer had completely healed. All patients tolerated the procedure well. At the end of the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks ulcer healing was complete in 2 (8%), 11 (42%), and 17 (65%), respectively, of the cetraxate group (26 patients); and in 8 (35%), 18 (78%), and 22 (96%), respectively, of the ranitidine group (23 patients). All the differences in the healing rates were statistically significant. Pain relief was significantly earlier with ranitidine. Incidences of side effects were similar and not serious in the two groups. The results suggest that at the doses prescribed to the elderly, ranitidine is significantly more effective than cetraxate in gastric ulcer healing and pain relief.