Efficacy of low-dose intravenous octreotide for 24 hours in acute variceal bleed

ABSTRACT

To compare low-dose octreotide with endoscopic sclerotherapy for acute variceal bleeding. Design: A clinical trial. Place and Duration of Study From 1995 to 2000 at PGMI, Peshawar. Subjects and Out of a total of 113 patients, 63 were allocated to low-dose octreotide [group-I] and 50 to sclerotherapy [group-II] on simple randomization method. Octreotide was given in a dose of 25 mg/hour for 24 hours followed by 50 mg subcutaneously [s/c] every 8 hours for 48 hours. Injection sclerotherapy was done by Olympus GIF 2 T 20 using absolute alcohol as sclerosing agent. Overall control of bleeding and mortality was comparable in both groups over 24 hours trial period irrespective of child grading. No rebleed occurred among the patients of either group in first 24 hours. However, a statistically significant difference p < 0.05 between the two groups regarding the occurrence of rebleeding in 48 hours was observed. Low-dose intravenous [i/v] octreotide is as effective as injection sclerotherapy in control of acute variceal bleeding and prevention of rebleed. However, subcutaneous octreotide was not found to be as effective as sclerotherapy regarding prevention of early rebleed