Somatostatin analogue treatment inhibits post-resectional adaptation of the small bowel in rats

Post-resectional hyperplasia is the phenomenon in which residual small bowel increases in size and absorptive capacity after segmental enterectomy. This experiment studied the effect of somatostatin analogue therapy on the development of two structural parameters of post-resectional hyperplasia in rats subjected to 40% proximal small bowel resection. Octreotide acetate-treated rats failed to develop increased villus height (902 ± 50 μm) relative to saline-treated rats (1,103 ± 98 μm). Augmentation of residual intestinal weight was also significantly impaired in analogue-treated rats (92 ± 3 versus 118 ± 5 mg/cm). We conclude that somatostatin analogue treatment during the early postoperative period does impair the growth of residual bowel in rats. These findings raise concern regarding the use of this drug for postoperative patients who have undergone massive small bowel resection in whom the process of post-resectional adaptation may be critical to allow sustenance with enteral nutrition.