COMPARISON OF SUCRALFATE AND RANITIDINE TWICE DAILY IN DUODENAL-ULCER TREATMENT - A MULTICENTER RANDOMIZED DOUBLE-BLIND-STUDY

Sucralfate and ranitidine were compared in the treatment of duodenal ulcer in this multicenter, randomized, double-blind study. A total of 165 patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulceration were included in the trial and randomized to treatment with sucralfate, 2 g b.i.d. (morning and evening with an empty stomach), or ranitidine, 150 mg twice daily. All patients were endoscopically examined after 4 and, if unhealed, 8 weeks. Of the patients considered suitable for analysis at 4 weeks, 73.5% (61 of 83) of the sucralfate group demonstrated healing of the ulcer in comparison with 63.3% (50 of 79) of the ranitidine group. At 8 weeks cumulative healing rates were 89% (74 of 83) and 84.8% (67 of 79), respectively. When smokers were considered separately, healing rates at 4 weeks were 69.2% (36 of 52) for sucralfate and 53.3% (24 of 45) for ranitidine. At 8 weeks cumulative healing rates were 92.3% (48 of 52) and 77.7% (35 of 45), respectively (p < 0.05). Overall, there was no difference in the two groups regarding symptom relief and side effects. These results suggest that these drugs are equally effective in the short-term treatment of duodenal ulcer, although in smokers sucralfate appears to be more effective than ranitidine.