Etodolac compared with aspirin: an endoscopic study of the gastrointestinal tracts of normal volunteers.

Forty-eight normal men participated in a 14-day, single blind, single center, multiple dose study of gastric irritation using endoscopy. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of 4 treatment groups after a one week lead-in period, as follows: etodolac 200 mg BID, 400 mg BID, 600 mg BID, or aspirin 975 mg QID. Etodolac at all dose levels produced significantly (p less than or equal to 0.0001) less gastrointestinal irritation than aspirin as assessed by endoscopic examination of the gastric and duodenal sites. There were no significant differences among the 3 etodolac groups.