Treatment of stress-induced upper gastrointestinal/hemorrhage with metiamide

The H-2-blocking antihistamine metiamide was used to treat 14 episodes of bleeding from the stomach or duodenum in eleven patients. In 11 instances bleeding was due to erosive gastritis or duodenitis and bleeding promptly ceased after one or two doses of 300 mg at 6 h intervals and did not recur as long as the drug was continued. In the 2 instances in which bleeding continued, chronic ulcers had eroded into major blood-vessels. There were no complications from the drug even in five patients with severe bone-marrow suppression after renal transplantation. Metiamide seems to be a safe and highly effective agent in the control of bleeding due to erosive gastritis.