Development of Effective Prophylaxis Against Intraoperative Carcinoid Crisis

Study Objective: The prophylactic use of a preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative high-dose continuous octreotide acetate infusion was evaluated for its ability to minimize the incidence of carcinoid crises during neuroendocrine tumor (NET) cytoreductive surgeries.

Design: A retrospective study was approved by the institutional review boards at Ochsner Medical Center-Kenner and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

Setting: Ochsner Medical Center-Kenner operating room and multispecialty NET clinic.

Patients: One hundred fifty consecutive patients who underwent a total of 179 cytoreductive surgeries for stage IV, small bowel NETs.

Interventions: All patients received a 500-μg/h infusion of octreotide acetate preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively.

Measurements: Anesthesia and surgical records were reviewed. Carcinoid crisis was defined as a systolic blood pressure of less than 80mm Hg for greater than 10minutes. Patients who experienced intraoperative hypertension or hypotension, profound tachycardia, or a "crisis" according to the operative note were also reviewed.

Main Results: One hundred sixty-nine (169/179; 94%) patients had normal anesthesia courses. The medical records of 10 patients were further investigated for a potential intraoperative crisis using the aforementioned criteria. Upon review, 6 patients were determined to have had a crisis. The final incidence of intraoperative crisis was 3.4% (6/179).

Conclusions: A continuous high-dose infusion of octreotide acetate intraoperatively minimizes the incidence of carcinoid crisis. We believe that the low cost and excellent safety profile of octreotide warrant the use of this therapy during extensive surgical procedures for midgut and foregut NETs.