Acute Variceal Bleeding: Does Octreotide Improve Outcomes in Patients with Different Functional Hepatic Reserve?

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines do not differentiate in the utilization of vasoactive drugs in patients with cirrhosis and acute variceal bleeding (AVB) depending on liver disease severity. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, clinical outcomes in 100 patients receiving octreotide plus endoscopic therapy (ET) and 216 patients with ET alone were compared in terms of failure to control bleeding, in-hospital mortality, and transfusion requirements stratifying the results according to liver disease severity by Child-Pugh (CP) score and MELD. RESULTS: In patients with CP-A or those with MELD < 10 octreotide was not associated with a better outcome compared to ET alone in terms of hospital mortality (CP-A: 0.0 vs. 0.0%; MELD < 10: 0.0 vs. 2.9%, p = 1.00), failure to control bleeding (CP-A: 8.7 vs. 3.7%, p = 0.58; MELD < 10: 5.3 vs. 4.3%, p = 1.00) and need for transfusion (CP-A: 39.1 vs. 61.1%, p = 0.09; MELD < 10: 63.2 vs. 62.9%, p = 1.00). Those with severe liver dysfunction in the octreotide group showed better outcomes compared to the non-octreotide group in terms of hospital mortality (CP-B/C: 3.9 vs. 13.0%, p = 0.04; MELD ≥ 10: 3.9 vs. 13.3%, p = 0.03) and need for transfusion (CP-B/C: 58.4 vs. 71.6%, p = 0.05; MELD ≥ 10: 50.6 vs. 72.7%, p < 0.01). In multivariate analysis, octreotide was independently associated with in-hospital mortality (p = 0.028) and need for transfusion (p = 0.008) only in patients with severe liver dysfunction (CP-B/C or MELD ≥ 10). CONCLUSION: Patients with cirrhosis and AVB categorized as CP-A or MELD < 10 had similar clinical outcomes during hospitalization whether or not they received octreotide.

Tranexamic acid versus aminocapróic acid in multiple doses via the oral route for the reduction of postoperative bleeding in total primary hip arthroplasty: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study.

To compare the effects of oral ε-aminocaproic acid (EACA) as a hemostatic agent versus the use of oral tranexamic acid (TXA) administered in multiple doses pre and postsurgery in patients undergoing elective primary total hip arthroplasty (THA). We enrolled 102 patients that were randomly divided into two groups: received three oral doses of EACA (2000 mg per dose) or three oral doses of TXA (1300 mg per dose). The medication was given according to the following schedule: 2 h before surgery and 6 and 12 h after surgery. The variables analyzed to compare the effectiveness of the hemostatic agents were total blood loss, hidden blood loss, external blood loss, transfusion rate, intraoperative blood loss, decreases in hemoglobin and hematocrit values, surgical drainage output, visual analog scale, and surgical complications. There were no significant differences between any of the study variables for the group receiving oral TXA and the group receiving oral EACA (P > 0.05). Our study showed that the use of oral EACA was similar to its counterpart TXA regarding the evaluated parameters. TXA did not have superior blood conservation effects, safety profile, or differences in functional scales compared with EACA in THA. We consider the use of multiple oral doses of aminocaproic acid at the selected dose to be effective as a standard protocol to achieve less blood loss and a lower rate of transfusion and adverse events related to the medication in patients undergoing a THA.