Ranitidine in the control of acute upper gastro-intestinal haemorrhage. A prospective randomized trial.

Fifty patients with acute upper gastro-intestinal haemorrhage were given either oral or intravenous ranitidine ( Zantac ; Glaxo), the route of administration being allocated on a random basis. Two patients were excluded from the oral group and 5 were excluded from the intravenous group. The two groups were similar as regards age, sex, number of patients aged over 60 years and severity of bleeding. All the patients were carefully monitored for rebleeding, which occurred in a total of 7 cases (16,3%), 6 in the oral group (26%) and 1 in the intravenous group (5%). Statistically this represented a marked tendency towards a significantly lower incidence of recurrent haemorrhage in the patients treated with intravenous ranitidine (P = 0,07, tested according to Fisher's exact method). No patient in the intravenous group who bled again came to surgery, while 3 of the 23 patients in the oral group (13%) required surgery.