Somatostatin versus secretin in the treatment of actively bleeding gastric erosions.

In a double-blind, prospective, randomized trial, 63 patients with actively bleeding gastric erosions were treated with somatostatin (31 patients) or secretin (32 patients). Both drugs were administered by intravenous infusions for 48 or 72 h. The active bleeding and the effect of the therapy was endoscopically established. Somatostatin had a significantly (p < 0.05) better effect on the control of bleeding (29 vs. 23 patients), transfusion requirements (5.8 vs. 7.4 units, p < 0.01) and on the need of surgery (1 vs. 6 patients, p < 0.01). The mortality and the rebleeding rate did not differ between the two groups. The results show that somatostatin is more effective than secretin in the control of active bleeding form gastric erosions.