The use of H2-receptor antagonist in the treatment of peptic ulcer disease in children.

We report our 20 years' experience on the management of 78 children with primary chronic peptic ulcer, giving special emphasis to the recent 32 patients (29 duodenal ulcer, 3 gastric ulcer) who received H2-antagonist therapy guided by endoscopic surveillance. The most striking observation was the marked decrease in the incidence of "failed medical treatment necessitating surgery" from 34.8% (16/46) in the pre-H2-antagonist era to 3.1% (1/32) in the H2-antagonist era. H2 antagonist was uniformly well tolerated and without side-effects. In 29 patients with duodenal ulcer, a 6-week therapeutic course resulted in complete ulcer healing in 22 (75.9%). Further therapeutic courses resulted in complete ulcer healing in four additional patients (13.8%). There was only partial ulcer healing in two patients (6.9%) and nonhealing in one patient (3.49%). There were 11 episodes of recurrence in nine patients (symptomatic 5, asymptomatic 6). Recurrence was more frequent when nocturnal-dose maintenance was not given (8/11 recurrences). All recurrences responded satisfactorily to further H2-antagonist therapy. Patients with gastric ulcer responded even more favorably, all three healing completely with a single therapeutic course and not requiring maintenance therapy. We conclude that H2-antagonist is safe and highly effective for healing peptic ulcer in children. For duodenal ulcer, maintenance therapy ensures a satisfactory remission rate.