Abstract
The therapeutic effects of H2-blockers in 64 patients with gastric ulcer were compared with those in 81 gastric ulcer patients receiving conventional antiulcer drugs (control group). Factors causing gastric ulcer to be refractory to H2-blockers were also analyzed. In the control group, healing of the ulcer was affected by age, sex, alcohol consumption, and smoking. The shape, size, and number of the ulcers were also related. In the H2-blocker group, however, these factors were revealed to have much less influence. When 6 patients for whom more than 3 months was required to heal their ulcers were compared with 7 patients in whom ulcer healing never occurred, the only significant differing factors were the duration of the illness and the number of occasions of ulcer recurrence. In our study, the factors of which ulcers became intractable were duration of illness for more than 10 years and recurrences of the ulcer over than 3 times.
