OBJECTIVES For esophageal varices, endoscopic variceal sclerotherapy and band ligation have been effectively and frequently used, but these methods were not effective for gastric varices. In gastric varices, because of rich networks of feeding vessels and shunts that may exist in many cases, an effective therapeutic level of sclerosant is difficult to be maintained. Accordingly, we propose a ne...

To assess the efficacy of absolute alcohol as a sclerosant, endoscopic sclerotherapy was carried out using a conventional endoscope and an indigenously designed injector. Forty three patients with portal hypertension who had presented with history of variceal bleeding were included in the study. Portal hypertension was caused by cirrhosis in 30 (69.8%), non-cirrhotic portal fibrosis in eight (1...