Terlipressin (triglycyl-lysine vasopressin) controls acute bleeding oesophageal varices. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vasopressin and Terlipressin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The patients randomized after stratification for severity of liver disease.

Terlipressin or placebo was administered as intravenous bolus injections every 4th h during a period of 24 to 36 h or until the clinical course necessitated active intervention (failure or withdrawal).

Who Took Part

The study group was 31 patients.

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

Patients with clinically suspected liver cirrhosis were included in the study if they had been admitted to hospital with an extensive haemorrhage within the last 24h before diagnostic endoscopy.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

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

The haemostatic effect of terlipressin (triglycyl-lysine vasopressin; Glypressin) on bleeding from oesophageal varices was evaluated in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Acute Disease, Esophageal and Gastric Varices, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Lypressin, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic and Terlipressin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vasopressin and Terlipressin in 31 patients.

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 publication is from 1990 (Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vasopressin compound page and the Terlipressin compound page, all human trials.