[Famotidine versus ranitidine in the acute treatment of duodenal ulcer. A multicenter comparative study in Germany].

185 patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcers were randomly allocated to treatment with either famotidine 40 mg nocte, 20 mg bid, 40 mg bid or ranitidine 150 mg bid for 2-8 weeks in a prospective double-blind study. The four groups were similar with regard to age, sex, duration of ulcer disease, smoking habits etc. After 2 weeks treatment 28/42 patients (66.7%) healed on famotidine 40 mg nocte, 24/42 patients (57.1%) on famotidine 20 mg bid, 26/41 patients (63.4%) on famotidine 40 mg bid and 28/43 patients (65,1%) on ranitidine 150 mg bid. The corresponding healing rates after 4 weeks were 90.5%, 83.3%, 90.2% and 93%, respectively. After 8 weeks more than 93% of the patients had healed ulcers. At each time there was no statistical difference between the different famotidine regimens and the ranitidine group. All treatments were well tolerated and severe adverse events were rare. Famotidine 40 mg at night, therefore, appears to be as good as conventional ranitidine.