OBJECTIVETo study whether the therapeutic effect could be enhanced by combined use of somatostatin and conventional integrative Chinese and western medicine (TCM-WM) in treating severe acute pancreatitis (SAP).

METHODSSixty patients of SAP were randomly divided equally into the somatostatin group (Group A) and the baseline treated group (Group B), they were all treated with non-surgical TCM-WM treatment, but to Group A, the intravenous injection of somatostatin 250 micrograms/h for 72 hrs continuously was given additionally. Laboratory parameters, condition of disease and therapeutic effect indexes, including occurrence of organic dysfunction, local complication and mortality, between the two groups were compared.

RESULTSThe recovery of serum levels of amylase, lipase, C reaction protein, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, as well as the scores of APACHE II in Group A were quicker than those in Group B (P < 0.05). The occurrence of organic dysfunction and local complication in Group A were lower to those in Group B, but without statistic significance. Comparison of the mortality in the two groups showed insignificant difference (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe early stage short course of combined TCM-WM and somatostatin treatment could improve the condition of SAP, but its effect on mortality should be further verified by enlarging the sample size.