Back again to vasopressin?

摘要

Pharmacoangiography has been performed for years (1). Changes in blood flow obtained by the administration of different vasoactive drags have been long studied for improving the accuracy of angiographic diagnosis and therapeutic purposes. During recent decades, several investigators have analyzed the intense vasoactive effects of vasopressin (2). These effects formed the basis for the establishment of new therapeutic possibilities in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding (3). If administered directly in the mesenteric artery, vasopressin provokes an intense vasoconstriction, thus reducing blood flow, lowering per-fusion pressure, and allowing clot formation (4). Despite good clinical results in some specific circumstances, the intense local and systemic vasoactive effect of this drug may provoke major complications such as volume overload, myocardial infarction, or hypertension (4). At this moment, administration of vasoactive drugs in patients with arterial bleeding is uncommon, and this procedure has been replaced by superselective embolization with microcoils.