Safety of ranitidine maintenance treatment of duodenal ulcer.

During maintenance treatment with nocturnal ranitidine (150 mg) for 1 year, 38% of duodenal ulcers relapsed. Twenty-one patients whose ulcers remained healed after maintenance treatment for 1 year continued to receive ranitidine (150 mg at night) for a further year, while 26 patients with healed ulcers received placebo in a randomized double-blind study. The rate of recurrence of duodenal ulcers during the 2nd year of follow-up study was 18% in ranitidine-treated individuals and 87% in those receiving placebo. The ulcer recurrences of patients receiving ranitidine tended to be asymptomatic and were clinically mild in the rest. Recurrences in patients receiving placebo were usually symptomatic and significantly more likely to be associated with bleeding. We conclude that ulcers that remain healed after 1 year's maintenance treatment with ranitidine tend to remain healed if maintenance treatment is continued. Moreover, this type of continuous treatment of duodenal ulcer is clinically safer than no treatment of the ulcer disease.