Octreotide Versus Sclerotherapy In The Treatment Of Esophageal Variceal Bleeding: A Meta Analysis

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of octreotide and sclerotherapyfor esophageal varices bleeding.Methods we searched Pubmed,EMBASE,the CochraneLibrary,CNKI and Wanfang database for randomized controlledtrials about octreotide versus sclerotherapy. RevMan5.2Softwareprovided by the Cochrane Library was used for Meta-analysis.Results A total of8randomized controlled trials involving1078patients were included including540patients in octreotide groupand538patients in sclerotherapy group.It was shown that nosignificant difference in initial hemostasis,rebleeding(within courseof treatment),rebleeding(within42d),mortality(within course oftreatment),mortality(within42d),complications between octrotideand sclerotherapy group.OR is1.20（95%CI:0.83~1.73,P=0.33）；1.16（95%CI:0.74~1.83,P=0.52)；0.80(95%CI:0.58~1.10,P=0.17）；1.15(95%CI:0.66~2.00,P=0.61)；1.11(95%CI:0.76~1.62,P=0.59)；0.46(95%CI:0.13~1.55,P=0.21).All of the funnel plots showedsymmetrical except the one of rebleeding(within42d),whichsuggests the little possibility of publication bias. Conclusions It was shown that no significant difference in initialhemostasis,rebleeding,mortality,and complications betweenoctrotide and sclerotherapy group,which showed that sclerotherapyis not significantly superior to treatment with octreotide.