Gastroduodenal complications in kidney transplant recipients.

Oral antacids taken every two hours while awake provided the only prophylaxis against gastroduodenal ulceration for 167 kidney transplant recipients between 1968 and July 1978. Either perforation or major hemorrhage occurred in eight patients within 30 days after transplantation. Between July 1978 and January 1981, bleeding occurred within 30 days in two of 147 recipients who were treated with both antacids and cimetidine. Of the 147 patients, eleven with a history of ulcers had undergone pretransplant vagotomy; neither perforation nor hemorrhage occurred in any of the eleven patients. Despite reports that cimetidine enhances certain types of immune responses, we observed slightly greater graft survival in the group treated with cimetidine.