Long Acting Somatostatin Analogue: Clinical Potential for Gastrointestinal Disease

Name somatostatin is found throughout the gastrointestinal tractand has a wide variety of biological actions. Nevertheless, its short biologicalhalf-life and limited stability necessitate its use via continuous parenteral infusionand, thus, limits its therapeutic usefulness The development of long actingsomatostatin analogues have lead to a re-examination of the therapeutic usefulnessof somatostatin in gastrointestinal disease. Somatostatin analogues appearmost beneficial tn preventing symptoms associated with neuroendocrine tumours.In addition, case controlled studies exist to demonstrate somatostatin analogueeffectiveness in treatment of gastrointestinal hemorrhage, pancreatic fistula, pancreatitis,short bowel syndrome and dumping syndrome