A Prospective Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Comparing the Effects of Somatostatin and Vasopressin for Control of Acute Variceal Bleeding in the Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

BACKGROUND: Acute variceal bleeding is a serious complication of liver cirrhosis, which has an attendant mortality of approximately 60% over two years, and a variety of treatments, such as balloon tamponade, endoscopic varix ligation, sclerotherapy, histoacryl injection and vasoactive drugs, have been used. The aims of the present trial were to compare the effectiveness and complications of somatostatin and vasopressin in the treatment of acute variceal bleeding. METHODS: Forty-three cirrhotic patients, with endoscopically proven acute variceal bleeding, were included in this trial. Both drugs were given as continuous intravenous infusions for 48 hours. Twenty patients received the somatostatin (250 mcg per hr after a bolus of 50 mcg) and twenty-three the vasopressin (0.4 units per min). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in relation to age, sex, etiology of cirrhosis, Child-Pugh classification, characteristics of bleeding episode, laboratory findings before randomization and units of transfused blood during therapy. Rebleeding, within 6 hours after beginning of therapy, was regarded as failure to control initial bleeding, and was observed in 3 (13.0%) of the patients who received vasopressin and in 1 (5.0%) treated with somatostatin (p> 0.05). Five patients in both the somatostatin (25.0%) and vasopressin (21.7%) groups rebled during the first 5 days following the initial therapy (p> 0.05). Meaningful complications related to the use of vasopressin were observed in 5 patients (chest pain or abdominal pain requiring nitroglycerin), but no complications were associated with the use of somatostatin (p< 0.05). The mortalities during hospitalization were similar in both the treatment groups. Two of the vasopressin and 1 of the somatostatin group died due to the uncontrolled rebleeding, and 1 of the vasopressin group died due to hepatic failure (2 weeks later after theropy). CONCLUSION: This study showed no differences in the effectiveness of somatostatin and vasopressin, but the somatostatin group had a lower risk of the complications.

A prospective randomized controlled clinical trial comparing the effects of somatostatin and vasopressin for control of acute variceal bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: Acute variceal bleeding is one of serious complications of liver cirrhosis that has an attendant mortality of approximately 60% during two years and a variety of treatments like balloon tamponade, sclerotherapy and vasoactive drugs have been used. The aim of the present trial was to compare the effectiveness and complications of somatostatin and vasopressin in the treatment of acute variceal bleeding. METHODS: Fourty-three cirrhotic patients with endoscopically proven acute variceal bleeding were included. Both drugs were given as continuous intravenous infusions for 48 hour. Twenty patients received somatostatin (250 mcg per hour after a bolus of 50 mcg) and twenty-three recieved vasopressin (0.4 units per min). RESULTS: There was no significant difference between two groups in relation to age, sex and etiology of cirrhosis, Child-Pugh classification, characteristics of bleeding episode, laboratory findings before randomization and units of transfused blood during therapy. Rebleeding within 6 hour after beginning of therapy, that is failure of initial control of bleeding, was observed in 3 (13.0%)patients receiving vasopressin and in 1 (5.0%) of those treated with somatostatin (p>0.05). Five patients (25.0%) in the somatostatin group and 5 (21.7%) in the vasopressin group rebled during 5 days after initial therapy (p>0.05). The meaningful complications related with vasopressin were observed in 5 patients (chest pain or abdominal pain requiring nitroglycerin) but serious complications of somatostatin were not found. Mortalities during hospitalization were similar in both treatment groups. Two of the vasopressin group and one of the somatostatin group died because of the uncontrolled rebleeding and one of the vasopressin group died due to hepatic failure. CONCLUSION: This study shows that the effectiveness of somatostatin and vasopressin was not different but somatostatin had a lower risk of the complication than vasopressin.