Prophylactic Ranitidine in Prevention of GI Bleeding in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Background: upper gastrointestinal (gi) bleeding remains aproblem in critically ill-newborns. the use of h2 blockers, bymaintaining gastric ph ~ 4, reduces the risk of stress-ulcerationand gastric hemorrhage. this study therefore, has evaluatedthe effects of short-term prophylactic ranitidine in controllinggastric ph and prevention of gi bleeding in neonates.methods: this randomized controlled study was carried outon 80 neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit wardof nemazee hospital, shiraz, iran. they were randomly dividedinto case and control groups and their gastric ph, stooloccult blood and macroscopic bleeding were determined. intravenousranitidine was administrated (5 mg/kg/day) for fourdays in case group. their gastric ph was measured before, oneius, and two or three days after injection and successful prophylactictreatment was considered if gastric ph was ~ 4.results: upper gi bleeding was observed in 41% of all patients.after ranitidine, there was a significant increase in gastricph which accompanied with the reduction of the frequencyof upper gi bleeding. furthermore, no significant changes werenoted in gastric ph of control group.conclusion: prophylaxis with ranitidine seems to reduce thefrequency of upper gi bleeding by significantly increasinggastric ph.