Drug treatment of non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding

Despite many clinical investigations, proof is lacking that pharmacological treatments significantly influence the outcome in non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Reaching conclusions has been hindered by the small size of many studies in a situation in which a large number of patients must be included if confident conclusions are to be reached. In addition, many studies, by comparing two potentially active treatments without a placebo group, have been unable to determine whether an equivalence of the active treatments represents equivalent but active or equivalent but inactive therapy.