Objective To study the effect and safety of octreotide acetate in patients with severe acute pancreatitis. Methods Fifty-two patients with severe acute pancreatitis in our hospital from July 2009 to December 2011 were selected as research object, and they were divided into control group (routine treatment group) and observation group (octreotide acetate group) with 26 cases in each group according to random number table, then the total effective rate, improvement times of observation indexes, hospitalization time and incidence of adverse reactions of two groups were compared. Results The total effective rate of observation group was higher than that of control group, improvement times of observation indexes and hospitalization time were shorter than those of control group, incidence of adverse reactions was lower than that of control group, there were all significant differences (P 0.05). Conclusion The effect and safety of octreotide acetate in patients with severe acute pancreatitis is better, and the application value for the disease is higher.