Lansoprazole is superior to ranitidine as maintenance treatment for the prevention of duodenal ulcer relapse

AIM: To compare lansoprazole 30 mg once daily, lansoprazole 15 mg once daily and ranitidine 150 mg once nightly in the prevention of duodenal ulcer relapse in patients whose duodenal ulcers had been previously healed with lansoprazole 30 mg once daily or ranitidine 300 mg nightly. METHODS: A double-blind, parallel group, randomized multicentre study conducted in 33 centres in the UK, Eire, Sweden and Australia. Two hundred and nineteen patients with a duodenal ulcer were randomized to receive lansoprazole 30 mg and 217 to receive ranitidine 300 mg for 8 weeks. Patients were then re-randomized to receive lansoprazole 30 mg (122 patients), lansoprazole 15 mg (121 patients) or ranitidine 150 mg (116 patients) for 12 months. All patients had an endoscopically-proven duodenal ulcer at baseline and were considered suitable for long-term maintenance therapy to prevent relapse. RESULTS: Significantly more patients were healed on lansoprazole (98%) compared to ranitidine (89%) (P < 0.001, Fisher's exact test). Lansoprazole provided more rapid symptom relief than ranitidine. Lansoprazole 30 mg and lansoprazole 15 mg increased the probability of not relapsing in comparison to ranitidine (P = 0.001 and 0.06, respectively, life-table analysis). Relapse rates over the 12 months were lower in the lansoprazole treatment groups (lansoprazole 30 mg, 5%; lansoprazole 15 mg, 12%; and ranitidine, 21%; lansoprazole 30 mg vs. ranitidine 150 mg, P = 0.002). Symptoms were well controlled in both groups during the maintenance phase. All treatments were well tolerated with no major differences seen in adverse event profiles between treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS: Both doses of lansoprazole (30 mg and 15 mg) were superior to ranitidine 150 mg in the prevention of duodenal ulcer relapse. Lansoprazole was superior to ranitidine in terms of symptom control and duodenal ulcer healing. Both treatments were well tolerated.