E. Bastings

Experience with Sandostatin ® in Various Groups of Acromegalic Patients

The availability, for clinical use, of the somatostatin analogue SMS 201–995 (Sandostatin®) has opened new doors in the treatment of acromegaly [1, 5, 6]. We report here our experience with Sandostatin used either as a chronic medical therapy or as a preparation to surgery.

Sandostatin ® (SMS 201–995) Can Exert a Direct Analgesic Effect

We have been treating thirty acromegalic patients with Sandostatin® for 2 years. Sandostatin has proved to be very efficient in normalizing growth hormone (GH) and somatomedin-C (Sm-C) levels. Clinically, improvement began after two or three days of treatment. A decrease in soft tissue swelling was observed, paresthesias disappeared and headaches improved. In three cases, headaches disappeared entirely only a few minutes after Sandostatin injection. We should like to document these typical cases more precisely.

Relapsing Acromegaly Resistant to Both Bromocriptine and Sandostatin® Treatment

Thirty acromegalic patients were treated in our hospital with Sandostatin® for a period of two years. The substance appeared effective in 70% of the cases. However, in some cases the effects were poor or nil. We describe here a patient whose acromegaly could be improved neither by surgery and radiotherapy nor with high doses of Sandostatin and bromocriptine.