Efficacy of Octreotide in the Control of Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding
PINIT KULLA V ANUAYA, M.D.*, DUANGPORN THONG-NGAM, M.D.**, NUSONT KLADCHAREON, M.D.* SURATVADEE MANOTAYA,M.D.*, VAROCHA MAHACHAI,M.D.*,
Affiliation : * Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Medicine, **Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkom University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of octreotide in the control of acute upper gastro-
intestinal (GI) bleeding and prevention of rebleeding, the Gastroenterology Unit, Chulalongkorn
University Hospital, conducted a prospective open study in patients with acute upper GI bleed-
ing. All patients with acute upper GI bleeding were given octreotide by intravenous infusion. The
patients then had endoscopic confirmation within 24 hours, were divided into variceal and non-
variceal groups, and then randomly allocated to receive either 48 hours of octreotide infusion or 48
hours of octreotide infusion plus 72 hours subcutaneous injection. Efficacy and safety of octreotide
were evaluated during the 5 days observation period.
Forty-three patients with acute upper GI bleeding were treated with octreotide infusion.
After endoscopy, 16 patients in the variceal group and 22 patients in the non-variceal group were
randomized to receive 48 hours infusion or 48 hours infusion plus 72 hours subcutaneous infusion.
Failure to control active bleeding occurred in II patients (28.9%) and failure to prevent rebleed-
ing was found in 5 patients (13.2%).
The results showed that the effect of octreotide infusion in controlling acute upper GI
bleeding appeared to be not different between the variceal and non-variceal causes. Subcutaneous
injection of octreotide for another 72 hours showed no apparent benefit for the prevention of
rebleeding.
Keywords : Octreotide, Gastrointestinal Bleeding
