The effect of octreotide on postoperative adhesion formation.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of octreotide, a long-acting analogue of somatostatin, on postoperative adhesion formation, because somatostatin inhibits secretion of some growth factors that have modulatory effects on collagen synthesis. DESIGN An experimental study. SETTING Surgical Research and Biochemistry laboratories at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. SUBJECTS Male Swiss albino mice. INTERVENTIONS Both sides of a 5-cm ileal segment from Swiss albino mice were scraped 10 times, and transient ischemia was induced by clamping the segmental artery. Animals were injected subcutaneously with 1 mL/d of saline for 3 days (group 1), a single 5-mL intraperitoneal dose of saline (group 2), subcutaneously with 10 micrograms/kg daily of octreotide for 3 days (group 3) or a single 10 micrograms/kg intraperitoneal dose of octreotide (group 4). In half of the animals repeat laparotomy was performed on postoperative day 5. After adhesions were graded, the scraped ileal segments were excised for determination of hydroxyproline quantity. The same procedure was repeated on postoperative day 14 for the remaining animals. OUTCOME MEASURES Adhesion grading, hydroxyproline levels. RESULTS On postoperative day 5, the intraperitoneal octreotide group (group 4) had a significantly lower median adhesion score than groups 1 and 2. On postoperative day 14, both octreotide groups (3 and 4) had a significantly lower median adhesion grading than both saline groups (1 and 2). Hydroxyproline levels of the groups were not significantly different on either day 5 or day 14. CONCLUSION Octreotide has a beneficial effect in decreasing adhesion formation in the early postoperative period.