The potent somatostatin analogue vapreotide does not decrease pancreas-specific complications after elective pancreatectomy: a prospective, multicenter, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

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

Complications were defined by objective criteria before beginning the study.

Why It Was Studied

Pancreatectomy can be complicated by pancreatic anastomotic leakage, causing major morbidity.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 275 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involved 275 patients without preexisting chronic pancreatitis undergoing elective proximal, central, or distal pancreatectomy.

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 Somatostatin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Somatostatin.

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

More than one site took part, so the patients came from several places.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Logistic Models, Pancreatectomy, Postoperative Complications, Risk Factors and Somatostatin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Somatostatin in 275 patients in people with pancreatitis (after the acute phase).

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (Journal of the American College of Surgeons), a journal based in United States.

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