Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Preliminary report of a prospective randomized study of octreotide in the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis.
Experimental and clinical studies on the effect of octreotide in the treatment of patients with acute pancreatitis have presented controversial results. Since January 1992, we have been conducting a prospective randomized study on the clinical effect of octreotide in severe acute pancreatitis, at three hospitals in Israel. ⋯ Although some of the parameters did not reach statistical significance, these preliminary results suggest that octreotide may have a beneficial effect in the treatment of patients with severe acute pancreatitis. This study is scheduled to continue for two more years.
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The application of video-endoscopy to general thoracic surgery is radically changing the approach to many benign and malignant diseases of the chest. Since July 1991, we have performed 794 purely thoracoscopic and 101 video-assisted thoracic surgical (VATS) procedures on 860 patients. ⋯ These data underscore the flexibility, safety, efficacy, and potential for cost savings of videoscopic surgery in patients with thoracic diseases. The ability to perform excisional biopsy improves diagnostic specificity and sensitivity to nearly 100 percent. Video-assisted thoracic surgical techniques also offer a minimally invasive procedure with acceptable risk to patients heretofore inoperable by standard thoracotomy.