Pharmacological treatment of patients with enterocutaneous fistulas aims at reducing output, increasing the chance of spontaneous closure and reducing the time of fistula closure. Our initial experience with octreotide suggests that this drug effectively reduces output of established enterocutaneous fistulas when compared with a placebo in patients on parenteral nutrition. Output reduction was independent of the basal output. Likewise, this somatostatin analogue was shown to accelerate fistula closure in a series of 27 patients treated with the drug after having received parenteral nutrition for a mean of 25 days. When compared with a historical series, the rate of spontaneous fistula closure was not modified by octreotide.