Zantac Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Zantac, including details on ranitidine, side-effects, allergic reactions, information.

Continuous infusion of pantoprazole versus ranitidine for prevention of ulcer rebleeding: a U.S. multicenter randomized, double-blind study.

Jensen DM, Pace SC, Soffer E, Comer GM,

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and CURE Digestive Diseases Research Center, Los Angeles, California 90073, USA.

OBJECTIVES: No North American randomized study has compared ulcer rebleeding rates after endoscopic hemostasis in high-risk patients treated with high-dose intravenous (IV) proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or IV histamine-2 receptor antagonists. Our hypothesis was that ulcer rebleeding with IV pantoprazole (PAN) would be lower than with IV ranitidine (RAN). METHODS: This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, U.S. study. Patients with bleeding peptic ulcers and major stigmata of hemorrhage had endoscopic hemostasis with thermal probes with or without epinephrine injection, then were randomly assigned to IV PAN 80 mg plus 8 mg/h or IV RAN 50 mg plus 6.25 mg/h for 72 h, and subsequently had an oral PPI (1/day). Patients with signs of rebleeding had repeat endoscopy. Rebleeding rates up to 30 days were compared in an intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: The study was stopped early because of slow enrollment (total N = 149, PAN 72, RAN 77). Demographics, APACHE II scores, ulcer type/location, stigmata, and hemostasis used were similar. The 7- and 30-day rebleeding rate was 6.9% (5 of 72 patients) with PAN and 14.3% (11 of 77) for RAN (p= 0.19). Rebleeds occurred within 72 h in 56% and between 4 and 7 days in 44% of patients. The 30-day mortality rate was 4%. Nonbleeding severe adverse events were more common in the RAN than in the PAN group (14 [18.1%]vs 7 [9.7%], p= 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: Because of the small sample size of this study, there was an arithmetic but not significant difference in ulcer rebleeding rates.

Published 13 September 2006 in Am J Gastroenterol, 101(9): 1991-9; quiz 2170.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Zantac Research Today. All Rights Reserved.