Does prophylactic administration of somatostatin decrease the rates of complications after pancreatic resection?: A clinical and electron microscopy study.

The postoperative morbidity after pancreatectomy remains high. The role of somatostatin and its analogs in reducing complications after pancreatic resection is controversial. The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of somatostatin to influence pancreatic cell’s function with consequence the decrease of postoperative complications. Between January 2006 and December 2009, 67 patients for which pancreatectomy was indicated were randomized into 2 groups. At surgery, biopsies of the pancreas were taken to be studied by electron microscopy and analyzed for ultrastructural morphometry. The total mortality was 4.4% (n = 3/67; 2 patients from the control group and 1 patient from the treatment group). The overall morbidity was 35.8% (n = 24/67). Eighteen patients in the control group (n = 18/32; 56.25%) and 6 patients in the treatment group (n = 6/35; 17.14%) developed postoperative complications (2-tailed Fisher exact test; P = 0.001). The most common complication was the presence of fistula (n = 6/67; 8.95%). Perioperative administration of intravenous somatostatin at rates applied in this study was able to inhibit the exocrine pancreatic function. This finding supports the prophylactic effect of somatostatin on the early postoperative complications of pancreatic surgery shown in this study.