Histamine-2-receptor antagonists and antacids in the critically ill population: stress ulceration versus nosocomial pneumonia.

We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate whether stress ulcer prophylaxis with histamine-2-receptor antagonists or antacids reduces mortality in critically ill patients. It appears that sucralfate results in a lower incidence of nosocomial pneumonia than either antacids or histamine-2-receptor antagonists. With respect to mortality, strong trends favored sucralfate over both antacids and histamine-receptor antagonists.