CLINICAL ALERT
Octreotide followed by sclerotherapy was not more effective than emergency injection sclerotherapy for acute variceal haemorrhage
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Objective
To compare the efficacy of a 48 hour infusion of octreotide,
followed by injection sclerotherapy, with emergency injection sclerotherapy alone in the treatment of acute variceal haemorrhage.
Design
Randomised controlled trial with 60 days of follow up.
Setting
4 hospitals in the UK.
Patients
150 patients with an upper gastrointestinal bleed and an
endoscopically confirmed variceal bleed that resulted in a systemic disturbance or required the transfusion of 
2 units of blood to restore haemoglobin concentration. Exclusion criteria were oesophageal varices that were not the source of bleeding, treatment with vasoactive drugs or injection sclerotherapy within the previous 7 days, or transfer from other hospitals with an oesophageal balloon in situ. Follow up was 100%.
Intervention
77 patients received emergency injection sclerotherapy using a
fibreoptic endoscope to inject each varix with 2 to 3 ml of ethanolamine oleate. 73 patients received intravenous octreotide, 50 µg per hour, for 48 hours from the time of the first endoscopy,
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