Variceal bleeding is one of the dreaded complications of portal hypertension. Although its prognosis has improved over the last several decades, it still carries substantial mortality. Although most portal hypertensive bleeds result from the ruptured distal esophageal varices, bleeding from other sources such gastric varices, portal hypertensive gastropathy, and ectopic varices can lead to clin...

Duodenal variceal bleeding is an uncommon complication of portal hypertension that can easily go unrecognized and reach mortality rates as high as 40%. Cirrhosis is the most common cause of duodenal varices. In most cases, duodenal varices occur concomitantly with esophageal varices, further complicating identification with initial endoscopy. Although many modalities have been explored with res...

In patients with large gastric varices, dose limitation of the sclerosant can cause difficulties in achieving complete thrombosis of varices during a single balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration (BRTO) procedure. For patients with incomplete variceal thrombosis after the first BRTO, additional sclerosant must be injected in a second BRTO. We report a successful case of BRTO for l...

Currently, oesophago-gastroduodenoscopy is the standard method to diagnose the presence of oesophago-gastric varices and to estimate the risk of bleeding. It is recommended that all patients undergo endoscopic screening for varices at the time when cirrhosis is diagnosed. After screening endoscopy, patients with medium or large varices should be treated to prevent bleeding, while all other pati...

CONTEXT Upper gastrointestinal bleeding associated to esophageal varices is the most dramatic complication of cirrhosis. It is recommended screening every cirrhotic for esophageal varices with endoscopy. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the capacity of the platelet count/spleen diameter ratio in non-invasively predicting esophageal varices in a population of cirrhotics originated in an independent cent...

OBJECTIVE To develop non-invasive laboratory variables for the identification of esophageal varices in patients with cirrhosis at Digestive Disease Center, Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients with chronic viral hepatitis who presented to the Gastroenterology Division between July 2002 to July 2003 were enrolled in the study. All patients with a diagnosis...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The study's aim was to evaluate the efficacy of endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) compared with endoscopic band ligation (EBL) in treating rectal varices. METHODS Data from 34 consecutive patients who underwent endoscopic treatments for rectal varices were analyzed. The clinical outcomes, including complications, related to EIS or EBL retrospectively. RESULTS In 2...

Aims: To evaluate the utility of endoscopic obliterative therapy with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (tissue adhesives) for gastrointestinal varices and to investigate the incidence of serious complications. Methods: Endoscopic obliterative therapy with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate was performed on 228 gastrointestinal variceal patients; 221 gastric varices, 5 duodenal varices, and 2 anastomotic varices af...

BACKGROUND This study assessed the risk of recurrence of esophageal varices by evaluating the severity of cardia vascular structures in patients with portal hypertension by EUS with a catheter US probe before endoscopic variceal ligation. METHODS Thirty consecutive patients with esophageal varices at high risk for bleeding were studied. Simultaneous conventional endoscopy and EUS with a 20 MH...

A patient is described presenting with an acute lower gastrointestinal haemorrhage as a result of extensive colonic varices. Further investigation revealed that there were no oesophageal varices or splenomegaly. Liver biopsy showed grade II fatty change only, with no other specific or significant pathological features. Transhepatic portography showed a raised portal pressure (20 mm/Hg) but the ...