[Role of somatostatin in the management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding]

Abstract

There exists a substantial basis of experimental and clinical data to support that somatostatin and its long acting synthetic analogue octreotide may be therapeutically efficacious either as primary or adjunctive therapy in subgroups of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. It has been proposed that somatostatin represents the optimal drug treatment for acute variceal bleeding due to its efficacy, its simplicity of administration and its lack of significant side effects. It provides beneficial respite if endoscopic therapy cannot be performed immediately. Somatostatin also facilitates the performance of diagnostic and of non-pharmaceutic interventions. Despite strong theoretical evidence in support of the application of somatostatin to the control of acute nonvariceal gastrointestinal bleeding, clinical trials have yielded conflicting results.