Octreotide for the treatment of diarrhoea in patients with ileal pouch anal anastomosis: a placebo-controlled crossover study

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide.

Diarrhoea with urgency is a debilitating long-term complication of ileal pouch anal anastomosis (IPAA) after a proctocolectomy.

Somatostatin analogues are used to control diarrhoea and high-output ostomies.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 7 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Flexible pouchoscopy with biopsies was performed at baseline in all patients and was repeated on days 7 and 14 in patients with pouchitis.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, open-label, placebo-controlled and crossover.

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.

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

Everyone knew when Octreotide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

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

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Colitis, Ulcerative, Colonic Pouches, Diarrhea, Gastrointestinal Agents, Octreotide, Postoperative Complications and Pouchitis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and open-label study of Octreotide in 7 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.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (Colorectal disease : the official journal of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland), a journal based in England.

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