The effect of Octreotide and ERCP on patients with pancreatic head carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of Octreotide on pancreatic head carcinoma patients with obstructive jaundice who underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with pancreatic stent placement.Methods Niney-nine patients hospitalized in Department of Gastroenterology of Wuhan Central Hospital from Jan 2006 to Dec 2011 were included in this study.All the patients were diagnosed as pancreatic head carcinoma with obstructive jaundice.The patients were randomly divided into the Octreotide treatment group and the control group.Both groups underwent ERCP with pancreatic duct stent placement for malignant biliary obstruction.The patients in Octreotide treatment group were injected with subcutaneous Octreotide at a dose of 0.1 mg twice per day for more than 90 day till death.The changes of serum total bilirubin before and after treatment were compared.The improvement of symptoms of nausea,vomiting,abdominal pain,diarrhea and anorexia was compared.The complication rates and survival were also determined.Results Postoperative recurrence of jaundice was observed in six patients in control group,and the cause may be stent occlusion,and 3 of the 6 patients underwent a second ERCP and stent placement,then jaundice was relieved,the other 3 patients did not receive a second ERCP.The serum bilirubin level in the remaining 45 patients returned to basically normal value (below 2 times of the normal value).The prevalence of nausea,vomiting,abdominal pain,diarrhea and anorexia in the 2 groups was not statistically different before treatment,and after treatment the prevalence of symptoms in the 2 groups was significantly decreased except for diarrhea.The decrease in Octreotide treatment group was more obvious than that in control group,and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.01).In the control group,post-ERCP pancreatitis occurred in three patients,and all were cured after treatment.There was no post-ERCP pancreatitis occurred in the Octreotide treatment group.Minor pain at the injection site was noted in three patients in the Octreotide treatment group.Pain was relieved after changing the injection site.The survival was significantly longer in the Octreotide group than that in control group [(14.4 ± 8.7) months vs (7.3 ± 5.3) months,P ＜ 0.05),and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Octreotide can improve the quality of life and increase the survival of patients with pancreatic head carcinoma who undergo ERCP with pancreatic duct stent placement. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms; Cholangiopancreatography, endoscopic retrograde; Octreotide; Stents