Comparison of ranitidine and cimetidine ulcer maintenance therapy.

We used published results from clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of ranitidine and cimetidine as maintenance therapy following healing of acute duodenal ulcers. Only studies in which patients were treated with an evening-meal or bedtime dose of ranitidine (150 mg) or cimetidine (400 mg) over a 12-month period were used. The results from the analysis of seven clinical trials where ranitidine was directly compared to cimetidine indicated that 8.4% fewer patients experienced an ulcer recurrence on ranitidine (p less than 0.01). The estimate of the common odds ratio was 1.63, which indicated higher odds of recurrence versus nonrecurrence for cimetidine than ranitidine patients. The 95% confidence interval for the odds ratio ranged from 1.21 to 2.21. When data from placebo trials were included in the analysis, ulcer recurrence was 6.8% lower for ranitidine than for cimetidine (p less than 0.01).