Experiences with octreotide in acromegaly.

We report experiences in 3 patients with acromegaly while using the somatostatin analogue octreotide. In case 1, a 44 year old male developed pneumococcal meningitis 3 months after having transphenoidal surgery for a pituitary tumour. This occurred with the re-emergence of communication between the surgical tract and the C.S.F. In case 2 a 52 year old male with insulin resistant diabetes mellitus requiring 240 units/day, with greatly elevated growth hormone concentrations was able to stop insulin within 5 days of starting octreotide. In case 3, a 52 year old male with sleep apnoea syndrome, respiratory failure and resistant heart failure made a dramatic improvement which is maintained 2 years later. All cases were associated with substantial falls in growth hormone and insulin like growth factor-1 concentrations.