[The therapeutic effect of somatostatin on acute severe pancreatitis: a clinical contrastive observation].

We observed the effect of somatostatin on the treatment of acute severe pancreatitis and on the inhibition of pancreatic secretion. 21 patients with acute severe pancreatitis were divided into control group (n = 12) and treatment group (n = 9) according to the admission time from 1992 to 1995. The control group was treated regularly and the treatment group was given intravenous somatostatin within 24h of onset 6mg/day for 5-7 days besides the regular treatment. No significant difference was noted in the general conditions of the two groups on admission. The volume of stomach suction in the somatostatin treated group was lower than that in the controls on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th admission days (P < 0.05). The serum amylase level of the treatment group was lower than that of the controls. 12 complications occurred in the somatostatin treated group as compared with 17 in the control group (P > 0.05). The clinical cure time was 15.6 +/- 4.8 days for the treatment group and 21.5 +/- 7.6 days for the controls (P = 0.02). We consider that as a pancreatic secretion inhibitor somatostatin can control the disease process and shorten the clinical cure time to some extent if it is used on the early stage of acute severe pancreatitis.