Thalidomide for Recurrent Bleeding in Patients with Small-Intestinal Angiodysplasia

Angiodysplasia is the most common cause of gastrointestinal bleeding that arises from the small bowel. Endoscopic and surgical treatments have obvious limitations (e.g., inaccessibility, multiplicity of lesions), and drug therapies that are used occasionally (e.g., thalidomide, octreotide) have not been studied rigorously.

Now, researchers in China have conducted a placebo-controlled trial with thalidomide, which decreases the expression of angiogenic factors that promote development of angiodysplastic lesions. Participants were 150 patients with at least four episodes (mean, 6 episodes) of recurrent bleeding from small-intestinal angiodysplasia during an initial 1 year of observation; patients were randomized to receive a 4-month course of …