Ranitidine versus ranitidine plus octreotide in the treatment of acute non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding: a prospective randomised study

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Octreotide, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 24 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Upper GI endoscopy was carried out during the first 24 hours in all patients with UGI bleeding who had been admitted within a period of 18 months.

Patients with variceal bleeding, and those who had undergone any type of gastric operation, were excluded.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Because people in this Octreotide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A time span of 18 months appears in the methods.

Eighty-four patients (58 men and 26 women) aged 21-92 years (mean age: 61.2 +/- 15.0 SD) were included.

The number of blood units given and the days of hospitalization were also recorded.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Gastrointestinal Agents, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Histamine H2 Antagonists, Octreotide and Ranitidine.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Octreotide in 24 patients over 18 months.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2000 (Current medical research and opinion), a journal based in England.

More context: the Octreotide compound page, all human trials.