The prophylactic effect of somatostatin on post-therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis: a randomized, multicenter controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Somatostatin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Patients undergoing therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) are at a higher risk of developing post-ERCP pancreatitis than patients undergoing diagnostic ERCP.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 391 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults, adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

This placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study involved 391 patients in 3 hospitals who required therapeutic ERCP.

Patients were assigned to receive either somatostatin or placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

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

Some patients received a placebo instead of Somatostatin, giving a reference point.

The incidence of pancreatitis and hyperamylasemia after performing ERCP was compared between the somatostatin and placebo groups.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde, Hyperamylasemia, Infusions, Parenteral, Korea, Pancreatitis, Premedication and Protective Agents.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Somatostatin in 391 patients.

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

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 2008 (Pancreas), a journal based in United States.

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