Treatment of gastric ulcer with ranitidine

Forty-eight patients with endoscopically proven gastric ulcer were treated either with ranitidine tablets, 150 mg twice daily, or with placebo tablets under double-blind conditions. Three patients were for various reasons excluded from the study. After 6 weeks' treatment a second endoscopy was performed. The ulcer had healed in 22 (88%) of the 25 patients who had received ranitidine tablets and in 4 (20%) of the 20 patients who had received placebo tablets. The difference was statistically significant (p less than 0.002). The number of days and nights with pain attacks and the number of antacid tablets consumed were significantly (p less than 0.002) lower in the patient group treated with ranitidine. The 3 patients with non-healed ulcer after treatment with ranitidine had their ulcers healed after a further 6 weeks' treatment with ranitidine, and of the 16 patients with non-healed ulcer after treatment with placebo tablets, 13 had their ulcers healed after 6 weeks' open treatment with ranitidine, 150 mg twice daily. No serious side effects that could be ascribed to treatment occurred during the study.