[Rate of complications in acute treatment of stomach ulcer: modification of the incidence by active therapy in placebo-controlled studies].

We evaluated 32 randomized placebo-controlled trials in gastric ulcer patients to determine the ulcer-related complication rate (bleeding, perforation) during short-term therapy. Patients treated with placebo had a significantly greater risk to drop out for ulcer-related complications than patients treated with active drugs (1,2% vs 0%; p less than 0,01), while the number of patients dropping out for other reasons did not differ significantly (8,4% vs 7,3%, p greater than 0,1). Thus, the efficiency of active drug therapy in gastric ulcer episodes is not only reflected by a significantly higher healing rate in 4 to 8 weeks (64,7% vs 41,4%, p less than 0,01) but also by a much lower risk for ulcer-related complications.