Long-term treatment of acromegaly with a long-acting analogue of somatostatin, octreotide.

We have treated 16 acromegalic patients for up to 44 months with octreotide in varying doses. Growth hormone levels were suppressed in 14 patients with associated clinical improvement. IGF-1 levels were measured in 12 and fell into the normal range in 10. Prolactin was suppressed in six hyperprolactinaemic patients but was unaltered in normoprolactinaemic acromegalic patients. Post-prandial hyperglycaemia with impaired insulin secretion was noted in all patients, and one patient required oral hypoglycaemic agents. Octreotide did not affect thyroid function. CT scans from before and after six months of treatment demonstrated minimal tumour shrinkage in only two patients. Octreotide was well tolerated with no serious haematological or biochemical disturbance and no evidence of malabsorption. Two patients developed gallstones. Octreotide is effective in acromegaly. The development of gallstones is the only serious adverse event we have encountered.