Does preoperative treatment with cimetidine increase the risk of postoperative infection?

During a 5-year period, 145 patients were operated on for benign peptic ulcer disease. 105 patients did not receive cimetidine in the few weeks just before the operation, while 40 patients used it until the night before the operation. Although differing in size, the groups were comparable with regard to other relevant data. The cimetidine treated patients had more abdominal infectious complications postoperatively but this difference only reached statistical significance when patients who were operated upon for bleeding were excluded. Furthermore, patients on cimetidine suffered from significantly more pulmonary infections than those not having this preoperative drug regimen. These results indicate an unfavourable effect on the postoperative infectious morbidity of having a patient on cimetidine treatment in the weeks immediately preceding operation for peptic ulcer disease.