Follow-up of endoscopic gastritis after healing with sucralfate or an H2-receptor antagonist.

48 patients in whom previous endoscopic signs of chronic gastritis had been abolished by treatment with either 1 g sucralfate three times daily or 40 mg famotidine at night were followed up for 3 months without further therapy. Cumulative endoscopic relapse rates at 3 months were 21.7% in the sucralfate group and 57.1% in the famotidine group (p = 0.017). All patients with endoscopic recurrence of gastritis also reported recurrence of dyspeptic symptoms of various degrees. Most patients with endoscopic relapse had persisting histologic gastritis, but up to 67% of subjects with histologic gastritis at the time of initial endoscopic healing did not have subsequent endoscopic or clinical recurrence. It is concluded that gastritis, especially if histologically active, tends to recur quickly after endoscopic healing and that early relapses are significantly more frequent after treatment with an H2 blocker than after sucralfate.