Use of somatostatin for complications occurring after liver transplantation.

Somatostatin can be helpful after liver transplantation in some well-defined indications. In uncontrolled digestive haemorrhage, a short course of somatostatin therapy can be of great help in controlling the acute bleeding and to avoid emergency laparotomy. Somatostatin could also be helpful in bilio-pancreato-intestinal fistula, but in this case its advantage over elective surgical treatment remains to be confirmed.