Unsuccessful Octreotide Treatment of the Watermelon Stomach

Abstract

For several years, antrectomy has been the treatment of choice to manage gastric hemorrhage in patients with diffuse gastric antral angiodysplasia, a rare cause of chronic gastrointestinal bleeding (1). Recently, different nonsurgical treatments have been proposed, including endoscopic and medical options (2-5). Because somatostatin and octreotide have been used successfully to prevent gastrointestinal bleeding due to peptic diseases, esophageal varices (6,7), and more recently, diffuse small bowel angiodysplasia (8-10), we wished to test the efficacy of octreotide on diffuse antral angiodysplasia.