Randomized controlled multicentre trial of somatostatin infusion after pancreaticoduodenectomy

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Somatostatin in the context of pancreatitis (after the acute phase) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

This study assessed the effects of somatostatin-14 (S-14) on pancreatic remnant exocrine secretion.

Who Took Part

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

This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy for malignancy.

Patients received a continuous infusion of S-14 (n = 38) or placebo (n = 37) for 7 days.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Somatostatin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Somatostatin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Somatostatin group a baseline to be compared against.

A time span of 7 days appears in the methods.

Pancreatic juice and peripancreatic drainage fluid was collected and measured, and pancreatic enzymes were monitored daily.

What Was Measured

This study assessed the effects of somatostatin-14 (S-14) on pancreatic remnant exocrine secretion.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Amylases, Duodenal Neoplasms, Hormones, Lipase, Pancreas, Pancreatic Juice and Pancreatic Neoplasms.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2001 (The British journal of surgery), a journal based in England.

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