Prophylaxis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding with cimetidine in patients undergoing partial hepatectomy

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cimetidine on prophylaxis of upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding from acute mucosal lesions or stress ulcers of the stomach and duodenum after partial hepatectomy. Five (27.8%) of 18 control patients had upper GI bleeding v.s. only two (5.9%) of 34 cimetidine treated patients (P less than 0.05). The result showed that cimetidine therapy is an effective modality to prevent upper GI bleeding after liver resection but there was a trend that it may induce postoperative liver failure and hepatitis. A further study is necessary to elucidate whether cimetidine therapy is really safe following major hepatic resection.