Relapse rates following initial ulcer healing with sucralfate and cimetidine.

The relapse rate following successful short-term therapy with sucralfate or cimetidine was studied in a group of 86 patients with recently healed duodenal or gastric ulcer. The patients were endoscoped on clinical relapse or, routinely, at 6 weeks, 6 months and one year. Patients whose ulcers had healed on cimetidine relapsed earlier than did those whose ulcers had healed on sucralfate (p less than 0.05 at 12 weeks), but the cumulative relapse rate by the end of one year was of the order of 70% in both treatment groups. The mean duration of remission in patients who developed a recurrence was significantly greater in patients treated initially with sucralfate than in those treated initially with cimetidine - 7.3 and 4.6 months, respectively (p less than 0.01).