Lafutidine can improve the quality of gastric ulcer healing in humans: a randomized, controlled, multicenter trial.

Improving the quality of ulcer healing (QOUH) is one of the valid methods of prevention of relapse of gastric ulcers. We investigated the effect of lafutidine on the QOUH of gastric ulcer compared with famotidine in a randomized, multi-centre controlled trial. Consecutive 80 patients with a gastric ulcer were randomly assigned to receive twice daily either lafutidine (10 mg) or famotidine (20 mg) for 12 weeks. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy was performed to examine the ulcer healing rate and rate of fl at type ulcer scars using dye-contrast. The gastric ulcer healing rate was 92.1% in the lafutidine group (35/38) and 94.7% in the famotidine group (36/38). The rate of flat-type ulcer scars was significantly higher in the lafutidine group (68.4%, 26/38) than in the famotidine group (42.1%, 16/38) (P = 0.021). In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that lafutidine, as compared to famotidine, yields a signifi cantly superior QOUH in patients with gastric ulcers in the clinical setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]