VIPoma Crisis: Immediate and life saving reduction of massive stool volumes on starting treatment with octreotide.

Abstract

We report the case of a 57-year-old male physician who presented with a life threatening secretory and refractory diarrhoea of around 20 L/day. This was complicated by severe hypotension, hypokalaemia, hypercalcaemia, renal failure requiring dialysis, metabolic acidosis, cardiorespiratory arrest and ventilation for 12 days. His diarrhoea responded immediately to the first dose of a therapeutic trial of subcutaneous octreotide 100 mcg 8 hourly which was started on clinical grounds alone before any investigations were carried out. After one day he was extubated and his blood pressure returned to normal. When a functioning neuroendocrine tumour is suspected clinically, the use of octreotide can, as in this case, be life saving.

• Authors: Omayma Elshafie, Christopher Grant, Aisha Al-Hamdani, Rajeev Jain, Nicholas Woodhouse
• Journal: Sultan Qaboos University medical journal (Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J) Vol. 11 Issue 1 Pg. 104-7 (Feb 2011) ISSN: 2075-0528 [Electronic] Oman
• PMID: 21509215 (Publication Type: Journal Article)