Treatment of an Enteric Fistula with Somatostatin in a Premature

The authors present the case of an extremely premature baby affected by severe Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) needing intestinal resection and ileostomy. An enteric fistula developed 3 days after ostomy closure. The baby was started on Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), and 7 days later the fistula output re-mained constant. Somatostatin (SM) was then given intravenously (3.0 μg/Kg/hr) and the fistula closed on the 3rd day of treatment. Since SM was introduced in 1986 as an adjunct treatment to TPN in enteric fistulas, the authors believe that theirs is the first report of a successful SM treatment in a premature. SOMATOSTATIN (SM) was isolated by Bra-zeaul in 1973. Its structure is that of a tetradecapep-tide. It inhibits gastric and exocrine pancreatic se-cretion, and to a lesser degree, biliary and endocrine pancreatic secretion. SM also decreases the gastroin-testinal transit speed.2 These effects are useful to de