[Triple ranitidine therapy in Helicobacter pylori infection. Recommendation for effective, safe and cost effective...

Peptic ulcer disease induced by infection with Helicobacter pylori can be cured by eradicating the organism. In the meantime, such eradication therapy has moved beyond the experimental stage and can now be applied in the doctor's office, effectively, safely and inexpensively. A seven to twelve day course of treatment comprising a gastric acid inhibitor (20 mg omeprazole twice daily is no more effective than 300 mg ranitidine daily), 500 mg metronidazole twice daily, and 1 g amoxicillin twice daily results in an eradication rate of about 90%. That is, repeat treatment is needed in only one in ten patients. The cost of eradication therapy, however, varies considerably: the treatment recommended by the "initiative in support of the new form of ulcer treatment" costs DM 512.27, while equally effective treatment using generics costs only about one-fifth of this amount. In this way, a troublesome illness that for thousands of years has received only symptomatic treatment and whose sequelae cause high costs can now be treated causally with a high success rate and also a favourable cost-benefit ratio.