Does Somatostatin Decrease Hemorrhage From Injured Liver in Rats?

Abstract

In portal hypertensive patients, somatostatin (SMT) and octreotide have been widely used to decrease variceal bleeding because of its splanchnic hypoperfusion effect. The aim of this study was to explore the effects of somatostatin treatment for decreasing blood loss of uncontrolled liver hemorrhage model in rats.Twenty-one male rats were divided into 3 groups including group 1; nontreatment, group 2; isotonic saline infusion and group 3; isotonic saline plus SMT infusion. Intra-abdominal bleeding was induced by transection of median lobe of liver. Mean arterial pressures (MAP), amount of intra-peritoneal blood collection and hematocrit (Hct) changes were evaluated for 60 minutes.There was no difference in the MAP changes between the groups until 25th minute. Thereafter, MAP remained similar in the group 1 while gradually increased (P< 0.05) in the group 2 and 3. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups 2 and 3. End of study, the highest Hct value was determined in the nontreatment group (41.0 ± 3.26 %) and it significantly different from other two groups. We found increase of Htc value in the group 3 (32.3 ± 2.75 %) when compared with group 2 (29.7 ± 4.19 %), but it was not statistically significant. The highest intra-peritoneal blood volume was determined in group 2. We found decrease of the hemorrhage in the group 3 when compared with the group 2, but it was not statistically significant. Somatostatin using has a tendency, although not statistically significant, to decrease of intraperitoneal hemorrhage from liver in the rat model.