Cimetidine vs. placebo in prepyloric gastric ulcer therapy. Six week controlled double blind investigation without any antacid therapy.

We studied the healing efficacy of cimetidine or placebo on 24 endoscopically proven prepyloric gastric ulcer outpatients in randomized controlled prospective double blind trial. There were 11 patients in the cimetidine (1,200 mg daily) treatment group and 13 patients in the placebo treated group. No antacid was allowed, but a placebo antacid with no neutralizing capacity was given as needed for pain. The incidence of complete endoscopic healing at 2, 4, and 6 weeks was 45%, 64%, and 73% in the cimetidine treated patients and 0%, 15%, and 62% in the placebo treated patients. There was a statistically significant difference (p less than .05) in complete prepyloric gastric ulcer healing between both treatment groups after 2 and. 4 weeks of therapy, but there was no significant difference at the 6 week observation period. The results of this study demonstrate that in prepyloric gastric ulcer outpatients treated for 6 weeks 1) cimetidine accelerates the rate of prepyloric gastric ulcer healing during the first 4 weeks of treatment; 2) more than 60% of prepyloric gastric ulcers will spontaneously heal during a 6 week observation period which is not statistically modified by cimetidine treatment.