Ranitidine versus cimetidine in the management of acute upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding

Ranitidine and cimetidine were compared with respect to their effect on preventing the continuation or recurrence of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to peptic ulcer disease. Fifty patients were randomly allocated to treatment with either ranitidine or with cimetidine. The two groups were comparable for age, sex, and severity of hemorrhage. There was no statistically significant difference in outcome between the groups when assessing need for surgery, total number of units in blood required, days in hospital, incidence of rebleeding, or deaths. However, there was a trend in favor of ranitidine: only one ranitidine-treated patient went to operation versus four of the cimetidine group. In addition, the number of rebleeds was higher in the cimetidine group (14) compared to the ranitidine group (1). Two patients in each group died. Therefore, ranitidine appears to be comparable to cimetidine in the management of patients with acute upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding. However, this study did not include a placebo group, and thus the generalized use of H2-receptor blockers in all patients with acute upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding has not been proven.