Single blind comparative study of ranitidine and cimetidine in patients with gastric ulcer. The Belgian Peptic Ulcer Study Group

Abstract

In a single blind multicentre study, the efficacy and safety of ranitidine was compared with cimetidine in patients with gastric ulcer confirmed by endoscopy. Patients were randomly allocated to receive either 150 mg ranitidine twice daily, or 200 mg cimetidine three times a day and 400 mg at night for four weeks; patients with unhealed ulcers continued the same treatment for a further two weeks. Out of 260 patients, 197 were analysed. Of the ranitidine treated patients, 66% were healed after four weeks and 78% after six weeks and of the cimetidine treated patients 62% were healed after four weeks and 87% after six weeks. These differences are not significant. These results confirmed that ranitidine is as effective as cimetidine in the acute treatment of gastric ulcer.