A single nighttime dose of ranitidine 300 mg versus ranitidine 150 mg twice daily in the acute treatment of duodenal ulcer: a European multicenter trial.

Six hundred and five patients with endoscopically diagnosed duodenal ulcer were randomly allocated to treatment with ranitidine 300 mg at night or ranitidine 150 mg twice daily in a prospective double-blind multicenter trial conducted in nine European countries. Endoscopy at 4 weeks showed complete ulcer healing in 246 of 301 patients (82%) treated with ranitidine 150 mg b.i.d. and 230 of 304 patients (76%) treated with ranitidine 300 mg at night. Cumulative healing rates at 8 weeks were 95 and 94% respectively. Both treatment regimens were equally effective at rapidly reducing the incidence of ulcer-related symptoms. Adverse events were few and consistent with those reported in previous studies with ranitidine 150 mg twice daily. The results of this trial indicate that a single nighttime dose of ranitidine is an effective and safe alternative to the twice daily regimen in the acute treatment of duodenal ulcer.