Background: Leakage from the pancreatic stump is a leading cause of morbidity following pancreatic surgery. It is essential to evaluate the effect of somatostatin analogues (SAs) following pancreatic surgery by analyzing all recent clinical trials.
Data sources: We performed a literature search in the Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Web of Science databases up to May 29, 2016. Publication bias was assessed with Egger's test. Study quality was assessed using the Jadad Composite Scale.
Conclusions: Twelve clinical trials involving 1703 patients from Jan 1st, 2000 to May 29th, 2016 were included in the study. With improvements in surgical management and peri-operative patient care, prophylactic use of somatostatin and its analogues reduced the overall incidence of pancreatic fistulas (RR 0.72, 95% CI 0.55-0.94; p = 0.02) and decreased the post-operative hospital stay after pancreatic surgery (the weighted mean difference was -1.06, 95% CI-1/88 to -0.23; p = 0.01). Other post-operative outcomes did not change significantly with the use of somatostatin analogues.