Does prophylactic octreotide decrease the rates of pancreatic fistula and other complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy? Results of a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide in the context of pancreatitis (after the acute phase).

Four randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trials from Europe have evaluated prophylactic octreotide (the long-acting synthetic analog of native somatostatin) in patients undergoing pancreatic resection.

Prophylactic use of octreotide adds more than $75 to the daily hospital charge in the United States.

Who Took Part

The study group was 1996, patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Between February 1998 and February 2000, 383 patients were recruited into this study on the basis of preoperative anticipation of pancreaticoduodenal resection.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and multicenter.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Octreotide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Octreotide study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Octreotide could be set against what happens without it.

Running at several centres spread the Octreotide study over different clinics and patient groups.

A time span of 7 days appears in the methods.

What Was Measured

Four randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trials from Europe have evaluated prophylactic octreotide (the long-acting synthetic analog of native somatostatin) in patients undergoing pancreatic resection.

The subject headings attached to it are Octreotide, Pancreatic Fistula, Pancreaticoduodenectomy, Postoperative Complications and Survival Rate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Octreotide in 1996, patients in people with pancreatitis (after the acute phase) over 7 days.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2000 (Annals of surgery), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page, Pancreatitis (after the acute phase) research.