A controlled trial of Trasylol in the treatment of acute pancreatitis

Abstract

Abstract Although Trasylol has been available for the treatment of acute pancreatitis for 15 years a review of the literature reveals that its effectiveness has never been either proved or disproved. A prospective double blind controlled trial was therefore started in 1967. The results are now reported. One hundred and five patients were studied. They provided a uniform clinical material and all were managed on an identical strict protocol except that patients received either Trasylol A or B, allotted in sequence using random numbers. At the conclusion of the acute episode the illness was assessed according to criteria which were not open to observer variation and each attack was categorized as mild, moderate, severe or fatal. The trial showed that there was a mortality of 4 out of 53 cases (7.5 per cent) in group A and 13 out of 52 cases (25 per cent) in group B. Statistically this difference is significant (χ2 = 4.675, d.f. = 1, P = 0.05). The code was then broken and this revealed that group A had received the active Trasylol. Analysis of age patterns showed that in the Trasylol-treated group the usual tendency for mortality to rise with advancing age was abolished. Trasylol must therefore be regarded as a drug which is beneficial in the treatment of acute pancreatitis.