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 lafutidineon the QOUH of gastric ulcer compared with famotidinein 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. Esophagogastroduodenoscopywas 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 lafutidinegroup (35/38) and 94.7% in the famotidinegroup (36/38). The rate of flat-type ulcer scars was significantly higher in the lafutidinegroup (68.4%, 26/38) than in the famotidinegroup (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.